Third Man Records is excited to announce Vault Package #38, Sleep Live At Third Man Records. The package, a which features recordings from Sleep’s career-spanning performance at Third Man headquarters in Nashville last month, consists of a quadruple live album on 4 different-colored vinyl LPs (purple, orange, blue, green), each in their own individual jacket all housed in a sturdy slipcase. A reproduction of the poster from the show, and a mystery Sleep / TMR mission patch completes the set. Sign up is open now through January 31 at 12am CST.

One of the biggest stories in rock music this past year was the unexpected return of Sleep with the surprise April 20th release of their new record The Sciences on Third Man Records. As lifelong fans of the band (and OM, and High on Fire, and Neurosis…), Third Man was nothing if not honored to be the label that released their first album in nearly 20 years. This record not only cemented the band’s legacy but built upon it by pulling off the rarest of returns. It was insanely good. Not only were they here, but they were better than ever. The Sciences is spiritual, speculative, messianic and heavy as all hell. Rampant touring ensued, and if you have seen them live this past year, then you know there are among the most powerful bands working today.

Just last month, on December 12th, Sleep brought the roadshow to the Third Man headquarters in Nashville and recorded over 2 hours of career-defining material to a live audience using their direct-to-acetate / audio mixed and mastered in real-time system. Seven, count them, seven lacquer cuts later, Third Man is prepared and excited to announce that a QUADRUPLE Sleep live album of songs spanning 26 years of their career is their next Vault package. Proceed the Weedian…

Sign up HERE before January 31 or miss out… forever. Third Man estimates that packages will be sent to subscribers within 6 weeks after the sign-up period ends.

Third Man Records is proud to announce the launch of Third Man Mastering, a full service analog and digital mastering studio located at 441 W. Canfield in Detroit, MI’s historic Cass Corridor. Watch a video detailing their services HERE.

Third Man Mastering provides mastering for all formats, including vinyl, CD, digital, and even cassette releases. Lacquer cuts are also available. Located directly next door to Third Man Pressing, Third ManMastering offers a streamlined process from mastering to pressing, while of course also working with clients’ preferred plating facilities or pressing plants. The state-of-the-art studio includes vintage and modern gear allowing its engineers to work from any format tape or digital source. With an on-site Neumann VMS70 Lathe among the studio’s centerpieces, Third Man Mastering will cut lacquer masters, reference acetates or dub plates for any vinyl release. Both Third Man Mastering and Third Man Pressing are open now to all public clients.

Third Man Mastering’s in-house engineers Bill Skibbe and Warren Defever offer the combined experience of more than a thousand albums over the past quarter century. Skibbe – who recently recorded and mixed Jack White’s acclaimed third solo LP, Boarding House Reach (Third Man/Columbia) – has worked with an array of top indie artists and GRAMMY® Award-winners, producing, engineering, and mastering records by such artists as The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs, The Kills, Franz Ferdinand, Breeders, Jon Spencer, Boss Hog, The Fiery Furnaces, Shellac, Protomartyr, Lower Dens, Lonelady, Liam Hayes (Plush), and Yak, among many others.

Though perhaps best known for his recordings on the 4AD label under the moniker His Name is Alive, Warren Defever has spent much of the past decade as a top studio hand. Recent credits include producing, engineering, and remixing recordings by Iggy and the Stooges, Thurston Moore, Destroy All Monsters, Yoko Ono, Jonathan Richman, Elizabeth Mitchell, The Gories, Low, Ida, The Go, and Sun Ra, to name but a few.

Today, Third Man Records is excited to release Mdou Moctar’s Blue Stage Session from his 2018 set at Third Man Cass Corridor in Detroit. Purchase or stream the LP HERE, and listen to “Tarha” from the LP HERE.

This release comes just after the announcement of Mdou’s new album Ilana (The Creator), his first true studio album with a live band, to be released March 29 on Sahel Sounds. Mdou is currently touring the United States — Ilana‘s first single “Kamane Tarhanin” and the full list of upcoming tour dates can be found HERE.

Mdou is a member of the Tuareg music community gestating in the remote desert city of Agadez, Niger, “where guitars are king.” His music first came to the attention of Western music-lovers through the essential field recording work being done by the good folks at Sahel Sounds, first on their 2010 compilation Music From Saharan Cellphones.

While much of Tuareg music has become more distorted, faster and bombastic as of late, Mdou’s soundscapes are more traditionally sparse, polyrhythmic and deeply psychedelic, with lyrics sung in the style of Tuareg nomadic poets.

His show on the Blue Stage at Third Man Records Cass Corridor was proof of how special all of this feels, especially in front of a Western audience, most of whom were seeing Mdou live for the first time. When Mdou took the stage with guitarist Ahmoudou Madassane and drummer Mahmoud Ahmed Jabra – only their faces exposed in their tunics and turbans – and began to play, there was a meditative intrigue that loomed heavy and thick in the room. Though hard to see clearly Mdou’s precise and rapid-fire fingerwork on his Fender, the audience was quickly and thoroughly transfixed by his left-handed virtuosity. By the end of the psychedelic-guitar-rock-groove-explosion that was their set, it was clear that this was the show of the year.

Caetano Veloso will reissue his 1968 self-titled debut album, to be released March 8, 2019 via Third Man Records. This will be the first authorized North American vinyl issue of this seminal album. Third Man has partnered with Vinyl Me, Please for the exclusive limited version of the album — learn more about the limited version HERE, and pre-order the standard black version HERE.

Caetano Veloso’s self-titled debut solo album is one of the most important and influential Brazilian (and, dare we say, South American) albums of all time. With the release of this seminal album, Veloso would become the leading voice of the Tropicália art movement, which took place in Brazil in the late 60’s.

The Tropicália art movement of the late 1960s, with flourishes in visual art, poetry, theatre and music, is one of Brazil’s most adored cultural concoctions. It was a movement which began out of necessity, shortly after a repressive military dictatorship seized power after 20 years of peaceful democracy. The term Tropicália first came from the mind of Brazilian visual artist Hélio Oiticica, whose eponymous piece consisted of a sandy maze bordered by tropical Brazilian flora and, at the end, a television set.

The songs on Veloso’s album immediately connected with people. “Alegria, Alegria” was his breakout hit that gained traction as a hymn for liberty advocates, juxtaposing images of Coca Cola, guerrilla groups, bombs and Brigitte Bardot as part of the everyday experience. The album’s first song, “Tropicália,” was an anthem for the whole movement; it’s a fragmented allegory, a structure borrowed from friends in the concrete poetry scene, touching on divergent cultural symbols, events, allusions and idioms, nimbly representing and critiquing the many contradictions in the new Brazilian dictatorship.

Unfortunately, these cleverly veiled jabs in Veloso and his contemporaries’ bodies of work gained greater and greater exposure as the movement became more and more popular, leading to the arrest, imprisonment and forced exile of Veloso and many of his cohort. Despite these difficulties, the Tropicalists continued creating in exile, strongly influencing artists both at home and abroad.

The Third Man vinyl issue has been remastered from original mono mixes by Warren Defever and Bill Skibbe at Third Man Mastering in Detroit, Michigan and sounds as warm and rich as the first pressing. Whether you’re a longtime fan or first-time listener, Third Man Records could not be more proud to spread the compelling story of this album, this artist and the Tropicália movement.

Following the enthusiastic reception of 2018’s Give Me My Flowers compilation, Third Man Records is excited to continue its exploration of powerful gospel music from Nashville’s own Nashboro Records with the release of Echoes Of The Gospel. The reissue is now available to purchase on vinyl HERE. This next chapter shines a spotlight on The Morning Echoes of Detroit, an electrifying Detroit-based gospel group who made their way down to Nashville to record for Ernie Young’s Nashboro imprint. And who better to reinforce the musically fruitful connections between these two cities than Third Man?

The Morning Echoes, led by Willie “Slim” Ayers, formed in the late ‘40s, released their first 7″ in 1951 and moved to Detroit in 1952. They started regularly broadcasting over radio station WJLB and became a part of the Nashboro Records family several years later. Echoes Of The Gospel was originally released in 1967 and was the first Long Playing record from these Motor City favorites. The Morning Echoes remained active in and around Detroit throughout the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s. The project officially came to a close when leader Willie “Slim” Ayers passed on September 17, 2013.

This re-issue entered the Third Man orbit when TMR artist and friend Kelley Stoltz sent a well-loved copy of Echoes Of The Gospel in gratitude for having him play the Third Man Pressing grand opening party. His note read “Thanks for the fantastic experience! This one is a spirit lifter, “In The Garden Of Eden” does it for me. XO Kelley”.

Third Man is now proud to cast a broader light on the beautiful Echoes of the Gospel and the Detroit- Nashville connection that it embodies. It is transferred with reverence directly from the original 1967 stereo mixes and remastered by Warren Defever of Third Man Mastering.

THE DISTILLERS TO RELEASE

“MAN VS. MAGNET” B/W “BLOOD IN GUTTERS” 7″

ON FEBRUARY 14, 2019 VIA THIRD MAN RECORDS

The Distillers are excited to announce that the physical version of their 2018 single “Man vs. Magnet” b/w “Blood In Gutters” will be released on February 14, 2019 via Third Man Records. This vinyl 7”, pressed at Third Man Pressing in Detroit, is the first chance to own new music from The Distillers in over 15 years. Limited copies of the Valentine’s Day Limited Edition Pink Vinyl will available on tour and via the band’s online store HERE, with an additional bundle option of the pink vinyl + exclusive t-shirt available HERE. Black vinyl can be pre-ordered HERE and will be available in the finest record stores everywhere on release day.

To call The Distillers simply a punk band doesn’t do justice to either the band or the word “punk”. Guitarist, lyricist, and vocalist Brody Dalle, uses her medium as a platform for a higher plane of visceral lyricism and independence. Few modern day punk icons have not only embodied the genre so truthfully but also transformed the depth of what it can mean so thoroughly. Originally formed in 1998 in Los Angeles, the energetic band, with Dalle at the helm, released a string of damaged and powerful albums, EPs and singles with California punk labels Epitaph and Hellcat, then released their third masterpiece of an album, Coral Fang, on Sire before going on an untimely hiatus and ultimately splitting in 2006. After breaking a 12-year silence on social media late last year, these two new tracks from the group are a triumphant return for their rabid and devoted fanbase.

“Man vs. Magnet” kicks off with crashing drums, thumping bass and melodious guitar, before transforming into a rough-and-ready punk anthem. The b-side “Blood in Gutters” is full of a wistful, wild energy from start to finish, with Dalle’s raw vocals gleaming as the chorus hits. Third Man is honored to be a part of The Distillers’ continuing legacy by releasing the physical version of this single.

Today, Third Man Records is thrilled to give a vinyl release to legendary Detroit punk rockers Algebra Mothers‘ defining single, “Strawberry Cheesecake” b/w “Modern Noise.” A run of pink vinyl (limited to 200 copies) is now available in the purple and green sleeves pictured above, while the standard black version can be purchased in the gray sleeve. The limited pink vinyl version can be purchased at Third Man’s Nashville and Detroit storefronts, while the black vinyl version can be purchased HERE. The purple sleeves will only be available for purchase in at the Detroit store, while the green sleeves will only be available in the Nashville store.

Algebra Mothers will be celebrating this release with a show next Friday, February 22 at Detroit’s UFO Factory withBush Tetras. Tickets to the show are available HERE.

This is THE single. 1979. Detroit, Michigan. A-Moms, a.k.a. Algebra Mothers, were one of the Midwest’s early cutting-edge new wave punk groups, who would go on to play shows with like-minded artists Pere Ubu andDestroy All Monsters. And this is their only release ever, that is, up until Third Man released a compilation of unreleased and live material last summer. Now you have the chance to own a reissue of the single that sparked it all, in 3 vibrant and eye-catching colorways.

“Strawberry Cheesecake” is absolutely frantic and infinitely catchy, popping right off of the platter into your ears. Lightning bolt melodic synth punches, desperately human but then briefly robotic vocals and no shortage of freewheeling guitar solos make no secret why this track so beloved. On the flip side, “Modern Noise” is an alien punk keyboard-cram blaster with a decimating, canonical guitar freakout feedback ending that successfully melts minds.

Third Man Records is excited to share its full slate of Record Store Day 2019 offerings. Topping the list is the Third Man Triple Inchophone 3″ record player, available alongside a new 3″ box set of The White Stripes singles. Third Man will also be releasing a 2xLP 180 gram black vinyl version of Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band‘s Trout Mask Replica, as well as Griot Galaxy‘s Kins LP in limited “liquid darkness” vinyl. The latter two LPs will be available in participating record stores on Record Store Day 2019 (Saturday, April 13), while the Triple Inchophone turntable and White Stripes box set will be available only at Third Man’s Nashville and Detroit storefronts.

3-inch records were originally released and marketed for a short time in Japan in the early 2000s, just before the worldwide re-birth of vinyl began to take hold. The White Stripes produced eight singles on 3” record in 2005 alongside an Inchophone turntable. The highly coveted vinyl records —only available on the Get Behind Me Satan tour (with the exception of “Denial Twist” which was and remains only attainable as a personal gift from Jack White) — go for top dollar in the secondary market.

Fast forward to 2019, the idea of resurrecting the format stemmed from a trip to Japan when representatives of Record Store Day met the only factory that used to make these “8ban” records and as such the RSD3 Mini Turntable by Crosley was born with its special edition Third Man Records Triple Inchophone, available at Third Man Records Nashville and Detroit storefronts on Record Store Day. Third Man Records is happy to use the rebirth of this format as a welcomed excuse to release an exclusive box set of six 3” records containing selections from the White Stripes singles back catalog that have not been previously available on 3″ record (only available at Third Man Records storefronts), as well as 4 additional label selections, available in mystery sleeves only at RSD participating record stores around the world.

The six new White Stripes singles available in the box set are “Let’s Shake Hands”, “Lafayette Blues”, “The Big Three Killed My Baby”, “Hello Operator”, “Lord, Send Me an Angel” and “Conquest.”

Trout Mask Replica is a touchstone in the history of recorded music. The mix of dada absurdist blues and previously unexplored experimental avenues has long been praised as one of the greatest albums of all time. As so eloquently put by John Peel, “If there has been anything in the history of popular music which could be described as a work of art in a way that people who are involved in other areas of art would understand, then Trout Mask Replica is probably that work.”

In full partnership with the Zappa Family Trust and to celebrate the relaunch of the seminal Bizarre label imprint, Third Man Records is proud to release Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band’s Trout Mask Replica.

Out of print on vinyl for nearly ten years, this remaster was helmed by industry legend Bob Ludwig and cut by the estimable Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. Utilizing crystalline-quality safety masters kept in the Zappa family vault for decades by the trustworthy Joe Travers, the audio here is positively glorious. Every last skronk breathes full life into the room. Every twisted guitar figure uncurls onto paths previously unpaved. Every last bark and howl shines resolute through the vast emptiness of your mind.

Previous countless Trout Mask Replica repressings used scans of scans of scans of the cover image, but the original Cal Schenkel cover photo has been tracked down and reproduced here at its clearest — its resolution from the original release in 1969. If you’ve only ever seen a jpg online or fuzzy, smeared-looking CD issues from the 90’s, be prepared to be wowed by the fully engaging spectrum this iconic image casts. This 2xLP is pressed on heavyweight 180-gram black vinyl for that full-on frenetic feeling.

Griot Galaxy is a “secret” jewel of Detroit’s avant-garde jazz history – until now. That is to say, they will always be a jewel of Detroit’s avant-garde jazz history, their deeply passionate music a testament to experimentation, freedom, and blackness. But with the long-awaited reissue of their first album, the hard-to-find Kins, the secret is out.

Griot Galaxy doesn’t strictly begin with Kins. It begins with visionary bandleader and saxophonist Faruq Z. Bey’s musical and political awakening in the late ‘60s, when the 1967 Detroit Rebellion was tearing Detroit apart and Coltrane’s untimely death was devastating the jazz community. Kins, recorded in 1981 and originally released in 1982, is a masterstroke of creative Detroit jazz. The freeness of the playing is anchored by a serious propensity for rhythm, evident in the way its members layered their collective backgrounds in bebop, funk, reggae, and other styles within the expansive possibility of sonic expression. And all but 200 or so copies of the original 2000 pressed were unintentionally trashed.

Griot Galaxy’s willingness to push boundaries was as affectionate as it was fearless. Kins is Detroit’s post-Coltrane, high-on-Sun-Ra bridge into the ‘80s. They certainly weren’t the first to experiment with polyrhythms, odd meters, and tonal scales beyond the traditional concepts, but it was in part the combination of Shahid and Tabbal’s previous experience with Sun Ra, as well as Tabbal’s experience with one-time Arkestra trumpeter Phil Cohran, that allowed the group to blossom. Donning silver face paint and spouting poetry on stage, the group gained notoriety for both impressive musicianship and theatrical proto-Afrofuturist flourishes as they played all over town, including Cobb’s Corner, a jazz bar in the Cass Corridor.

We’re lucky that lead engineer Ron DeCorte saved the original master tapes, from which these recordings came. Although most of the wider world didn’t get a chance to experience the wonder of Griot Galaxy at the time, we will gloriously, happily, gratefully take what we can get now.

In celebration of ten years in its home base of Nashville, TN, Third Man Records will host a celebration on April 6 with performances by The Raconteurs — their first in eight years — Lillie Mae, Craig Brown Band, Teddy & The Rough Riders, The Dirtbombs, The Gories, Detroit Cobras, Quintron & Miss Pussycat, Soledad Brothers, and Todd Albright. General admission tickets will come with access to 10+ performances across 2 stages, vendors, official merch and concessions. Tickets go on sale on March 15 HERE. — see below for the full details of both General Admission and Ultra Ticket packages. Special guests at the festival will include Margo Price, Alison Mosshart, Carla Azar, Joshua Hedley, Dave Buick and more.

One moment in the midst of putting out nearly 600 records, hosting hundreds of live shows, capturing thousands of recordings for visitors to our stores, blowing up the box the rest of the record industry thinks inside, opening a pressing plant, giving schoolchildren the opportunity to make a vinyl record, helping to revive a dying industry, and bringing the music of our favorite musicians to a larger audience, Third Man blinked. They blinked and when they opened our eyes decennial awe befell them. Third Man Records has been doing its own damn thing for TEN YEARS. If this doesn’t call for a celebration we don’t know what does.

Plan to join TMR on April 6th in Nashville as they host the kind of anniversary bash that only comes around 10 times a century! Fresh out of the studio and performing live for the first time in 8 years, The Raconteurs (Brendan Benson, Patrick Keeler, Jack Lawrence, and Jack White) are scheduled to headline the event. Also lending their talents to aid in the celebration are Lillie Mae, Craig Brown Band, Teddy & The Rough Riders, The Dirtbombs, The Gories, Detroit Cobras, Quintron & Miss Pussycat, Soledad Brothers, and Todd Albright. Special guests at the festival will include Margo Price, Alison Mosshart, Carla Azar, Joshua Hedley, Dave Buick and more…

Third Man Books is proud to announce Re\VERB, a podcast about the convergence of music, literature and pop culture. Hosted by Kendra DeColo and & Ciona Rouse, Re\VERB—Third Man’s first podcast— talks about how life and culture influences literature & how literature influences life and culture. The hosts invite writers, mostly, but also songwriters, musicians, filmmakers—people they love—who have a thing or two to say about music, literature and pop culture, and host them at Third Man Records to have a chat in the Blue Room. Each episode runs for just about an hour and includes readings, songs and a writing prompt. Each season, they will host one podcast in front of a live studio audience, as well.

Re\VERB’s debut episode, which is out now, features guest Hanif Abdurraqib, a poet, essayist, and author of theNew York Times bestselling book Go Ahead in the Rain – Notes to A Tribe Called Quest.

Third Man Books is proud to announceRe\VERB, a podcast about the convergence of music, literature and pop culture. Hosted by Kendra DeColo and & Ciona Rouse, Re\VERB—Third Man’s first podcast— talks about how life and culture influences literature & how literature influences life and culture. The hosts invite writers, mostly, but also songwriters, musicians, filmmakers—people they love—who have a thing or two to say about music, literature and pop culture, and host them at Third Man Records to have a chat in the Blue Room. Each episode runs for just about an hour and includes readings, songs and a writing prompt. Each season, they will host one podcast in front of a live studio audience, as well.

Re\VERB’s debut episode, which is out now, features guest Hanif Abdurraqib, a poet, essayist, and author of theNew York Times bestselling book Go Ahead in the Rain – Notes to A Tribe Called Quest.

ABOUT THE HOSTS:

2019 NEA Literary Fellow Kendra DeColo is a poet, essayist, and aspiring screenwriter living in Nashville, TN. She is the author of My Dinner with Ron Jeremy (Third Man Books, 2016) and Thieves in the Afterlife (Saturnalia Books, 2014), selected by Yusef Komunyakaa for the 2013 Saturnalia Books Poetry. Her poems and essays appear in Tin House Magazine, Waxwing, Los Angeles Review, Bitch Magazine, Gulf Coast, VIDA, and elsewhere. She has received awards and fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Millay Colony, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Tennessee Arts Commission, and Split This Rock. She has been a visiting poetry professor at Sarah Lawrence College and Vanderbilt University. She is currently working on a graphic memoir, her third poetry collection, and a sports comedy.

“While I love talking with writers, artists and musicians about their craft, I’m often more interested in hearing a poet talk about their first musical love, first concert, the bad sitcom they watched religiously in the 90s, or favorite fast food. Re/Verb is a place where artists reveal the sometimes hidden but vital parts of their creative process; the areas where pop culture mingles with “high art” and categorization no longer matters.”

Ciona Rouse is a poet and author of Vantablack (Third Man Books, 2017). Rouse is poetry editor of the literary journal Wordpeace and cohost of the Re/Verb podcast from Third Man Books. Her work can be found in Native Magazine, Gabby Journal, Matter: a journal of political poetry and commentary and Talking River. In addition to curating many poetry experiences and workshops in Nashville, she also collaborates with various artists to create multi-disciplinary performances, including the show The Longest Night with saxophonist Jeff Coffin and composer Jason Shelton at Oz Arts, the Blair House Collective with musician and poet Adia Victoria and poet Caroline Randall Williams and Nick Cave: Feat with the visual artist Nick Cave for the Frist Art Museum, which was a performance at the Schermmerhorn Symphony Center in 2018, which was recognized as the year’s best poetry performance in the Nashville Scene.

“Kendra and I often find ourselves in a coffee shop somewhere in Nashville talking about craft, the poems we write, the latest thing we read. These conversations are usually littered with a little current events here and there, a reference to a favorite Prince song every once in a while and a bit of reminiscing about a favorite movie starring Molly Ringwald. We thought, “why not get to chatting with our other writer friends & favorite authors about these same things?” So here we are! I love that we share tips of the trade, discuss early experiences with literature or talk about our personal ghosts one minute and then somehow end up talking about yoga or Courtney Love the next minute. And it’s a great excuse to hear from some dynamic voices we know and want everyone to know.”

Season 1 Schedule

Episode 1 – Monday 3/25

Hanif Abdurraqib: “A Nuanced Kind of Love”

We talk with poet, music critic, and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib about kindness, the art of fandom, Courtney Love, the legacy of 90s artists, and knowing when you are “not the person.” If Hanif’s poems ate ice cream their favorite flavor would be Supermoon.

“I don’t know if I’m writing toward the future as much as I am trying to make sense of the present so I can live long enough to see a future.”

Episode 2 – Monday 4/29

Maggie Smith “You Can’t Hide from Yourself on a Legal Pad”

We talk with poet Maggie Smith about the end of the world, ghost cells, writing her shadow self, dream collaborations, and what it’s like to have your poem read by Meryl Streep. If her poems wore sneakers, they would be red high-top converse.

“The idea of haunting and of family are different and wider and stranger than we might think.”

We talk to poet, editor and essayist Camille T. Dungy about memorizing poetry, the human and non-human natural world, being an extroverted poet on the move, artist motherhood and refraining from a writing routine in case she lands in prison. If her poems were a piece of furniture, they’d be a bed on fire (á la “Shockadelica”).

“If you haven’t been practicing your scales, you’re not going to actually be able to play . . . The muse wants in-shape brains and bodies. So, these kinds of practices/exercises, for me, are the equivalent of wall squats.”

We talk with poet, editor, and teacher Rebecca Gayle Howell along with her partner musician Brett Ratliff about writing into received musical and poetic forms, Appalachia and resistance, moving across time and place, Young MC and an incompetent bandit.

“I really do think that Appalachia is the bellwether. If the rest of the country wants to understand what corporatocracy does, what being colonized inside of America does, we will start playing very close attention to the last 100 years of Appalachia.”

Episode 5 – Monday 7/29

Danez Smith Episode: “We Rise in Circles”

In this episode we talk with Danez Smith about writing “the unsavory parts” of ourselves, balancing truth with tenderness, having a healthy fear of fucking up, finding one’s poetry family, and form as self-care. If Danez’s poems collected crystals their favorite would be rose quartz.

“Tenderness sometimes isn’t always about the way that truth is told but maybe it’s in the images or it’s in the sound, trying to offer some kind of play or delight.”

Monday 6 – Friday 8/26

Nickole Brown Episode: “Be Mean and Fight For It”

In our very first live episode, we talk with Nickole Brown about “totem objects,” literary code-switching, permission to return to one’s roots, and her special relationship with her grandmother who “might not be like your grandmother.” If Nickole’s poems drove, they would own a Prius with faux leopard-skin covered seats.

“I realized I had to go back to where I came from in order to find my voice. When I did, it was this mother tongue. It was my grandmother. It was my mama. It was then that the accent that I had to lose, I had to return to in order to speak my own poems.”

Third Man Records has shared the official recap video of its 10th Anniversary celebration that took place last Saturday, April 6 — watch HERE. In addition to boasting the live return of The Raconteurs after an eight-year absence, the event featured performances and DJ sets from various Third Man-associated artists across two stages, local vendors, readings from Third Man Books authors and much more at its Nashville, TN headquarters. Billboard, Rolling Stone, Consequence of Sound, Nashville Scene and more were in attendance and voiced their acclaim of the event. In the spirit of the occasion, label co-founders Ben Swank and Ben Blackwell were celebrated for their ten years of service with the announcement that they were being made co-owners of the label.

Third Man has also officially landed on Bandcamp. Selections from their catalog are now up on Bandcamp in a variety of formats. From alternative country (Margo Price’s All American Made, Craig Brown Band’sThe Lucky Ones Forget) and critically-acclaimed stoner metal (Sleep’s The Sciences), to hardcore punk (the Stools’ When I Left) and slacker garage (Teddy and The Rough Riders’ I Found Somethin’), there’s something for everyone.

This summer, the Raconteurs—Brendan Benson, Patrick Keeler, Jack Lawrence, and Jack White—will return with Help Us Stranger, their third album and first studio effort in over a decade. The follow-up to 2008’s Consolers of the Lonely arrives June 21st via Third Man Records.

Japanese power trio Guitar Wolf are excited to announce their 13th full-length album LOVE&JETT, out May 10 on Third Man Records. To ring in the announcement, the group has shared the video for the title track — watch HERE, and hear the audio-only version HERE. A full US tour with Nashville Pussy is slated from May 8 – June 2. See below for the full list of dates.

Guitar Wolf are the keepers of all blasted, hard, spazzed out songs, building a whole life on the bedrock of hyperactive RNR exhilaration. This Japanese power-group has been stupefying audiences at home and on the road since the late ‘80s and finally are back to unveil their capital-L loud jams. Third Man is fortunate to be releasing their lucky 13th full-length album LOVE&JETT and to have a hand in supporting Guitar Wolf’s noisy and canonical rise to their rightful place in underground music’s highest hall of fame.

LOVE&JETT is full of Guitar Wolf’s sweet, sweet love songs, all recorded in Japan. This is the first album recorded with newest Bass Wolf (IV), Gotz, who joined the band in 2018 While each song’s words (apart from a handful of song titles, 1-2-3-4s plus a clever cover of Spencer Davis Group’s “Gimme Some Lovin’”) punch out in their native Japanese, the adoring English-speaking public will be granted an insert enclosed in each LP and CD with all lyrics translated to English. (That means NO excuses to not have a haphazard bilingual sing-along on their upcoming US tour.) The energy explodes on the scene with the title track’s opening 1-2 bass-snare piston-fire and truly does not let up at any point on the full album. Seiji, Tōru, and Gotz shine especially bright on “Sex Jaguar,” barely clocking in just over 2 minutes with chorus catchphrases and feline roars.

So with your heart flying high and faster than Mach speed, the untouchable legends Guitar Wolf are back to rush you away into another dimension.

Today, Third Man Records is excited to release 7″ singles from The David Nance Group and Long Hots. Both are available now on 7” vinyl from thirdmanstore.com or your favorite local independent record store and on your favorite streaming service. Limited editions will be available at the release show in Third Man Records’ Nashville Blue Room TONIGHT. Tickets are still available HERE.

David Nance Group:

David Nance has been releasing songs for a few years now, including full-album covers of Beatles For Sale and Lou Reed’s Berlin, and along the way has become a fixture of the American underground scene. Building a reputation on evocations of Creedence classic rock with bottom-heavy druggy attic bummer jamming, Nance and his Group rip through two new and true-to-form tracks for their first 7” in proud partnership with Third Man.

Meanwhile is 4 minutes of post-everything rock n roll death race to the bottom of the sea of tape hiss and Wiper-ian broken space riffage. Backed with the honky tonk punk stance of Credit Line’s 2019 debt wite-out anthem, this is an essential 2-sider for everyone who ever stared in their dad’s closet at his faded denim jacket and DREAMED.

Long Hots:

Third Man is very excited to release the debut vinyl single from “boogie trance” trio Long Hots. What ink can be spilled about this trio of Philadelphian rollers that hasn’t already been hyperbolied in year end lists worldwide? Their Monday Night Raw cassette never left our deck since its release and, and TMR is proud as all hell to release their first ever 7” of fried zoner boogie blues.

Long Hots are the true Philly phrenetic, an unpolished combo of fuzzed out & agitated guitar, undercurrent bass choogle and bare bones drums. Theirs are the kind of long-form weighty psych jams that bring to mind heroes like Moe Tucker, Stooges and Dead Moon. Tasteful, smart, fun and fresh for your late summery nights.

A-side song “Give and Take” is 4 sturdy minutes of drone garage groove capturing the feeling of loose tension in between giving and taking and pushing and pulling. On the flip side, “Nickel and Dime” is a mucky pop song zeroing in on a dude unfit to pull his own damn weight and, from the sounds of it, not worth the trouble. Purchase the 7″ HERE.

Legendary NYC no-wave group BUSH TETRAS are excited to announce “There Is A Hum” b/w “Seven Years,” a new 7″ to be released on Third Man Records. The standard edition will be released on July 26, while the limited “Coke bottle clear” version will be available at the release show at NYC’s Mercury Lounge on August 3. More details on the event can be found HERE.

BUSH TETRAS formed in 1979 out of NYCs No Wave/Post Punk/Art Funk/Dance Junk scene. The band’s debut release TOO MANY CREEPS on the legendary 99 Records is one of that scene’s defining moments, capturing perfectly the vibe of that very particular moment in NYC. BUSH TETRAS was one of the supporting acts for The Clash’s mythical 17-show run at Bond International Casino in the spring of ’81. Topper Headon also produced their Rituals EP for Stiff Records. In 1983, the members of BUSH TETRAS went their own ways and the band remained relatively quiet and elusive for the next several decades.

Original members Cynthia Sley, Dee Pop, and Pat Place now joined by Val Opielski taking over bass duties for the late Laura Kennedy. 2018 saw the release of Take The Fall EP on Wharf Cat Records, the band’s first new music in 10+ years and the welcome return of BUSH TETRAS!!! This winter, Third Man cleared their Cass Corridor

showroom floor and enlisted the help of Third Man Mastering’s Bill Skibbe and Warren Defever to record “There is A Hum,” “Seven Years” and “Sucker is Born” (Bandcamp exclusive).

It was quick and punk and magical.

BUSH TETRAS’ influence can not be overstated. Enjoy and consider yourself lucky.

Bush Tetras will celebrate the release of their new 45, “There is A Hum” b/w “Seven Years,” on Third Man Records, on Saturday, August 3rd at The Mercury Lounge. Opening will be Thalia Zedek and her group E with selections by DJs Dave Buick (Third Man Records) and Trip Warner (Wharf Cat Records) before, between and after.

“They are still the greatest, the boldest, the colossal. You don’t watch The Hives, you experience them. This is the greatest show on Earth, and they make sure you know it.”

Third Man Records is excited to announce The Hives’ limited edition double-A side 7″ of “I’m Alive” b/w “Good Samaritan,” to be released on June 28. Hear “Good Samaritan” HERE. Both new tracks were produced by Dave Sardy (LCD Soundsystem, Marilyn Manson, Fall Out Boy) and recorded in Los Angeles.

In a transmission from the band they say: “This a song about helping people help themselves by not helping them? Are they sarcastic or do they hate people now? Is this punk? You never know with these Hives and it’s been a while since I saw them so let’s all go see them again and see what they are on about? Musically faster than usual but a surprising dive into the chorus that feels like going into hyper-space. Now it’s not surprising anymore. Oh well.”

The Hives recently wrapped up a string of SOLD OUT US dates with Refused. LA Weekly described the shows as “a triumphant rise from the grave by ever-demonstrative and rambunctious Hives” and the Kansas City Pitchproclaimed “these are some of the finest showmen in modern rock!” The Hives will head back to Europe for a summer festival run, including performances at the inaugural Lollapalooza Stockholm, Sjock Festival (Belgium), Mad Cool (Spain) and more. See their full tour schedule HERE.

In the twenty years since the Hives exploded around the world, they have sold out stadiums and shared stages with everyone from AC/DC to The Rolling Stones. SPIN calls The Hives “the best live band on the planet” and frontman Pelle Almqvist “the greatest frontman in rock,” and the BBC dubbed the band “a force of nature.” Rolling Stone named Veni Vidi Vicious one of the Top 100 Albums of the decade and “Hate To Say I Told You So” earned a spot on Pitchfork’s Top 500 Songs of the 2000’s. They sold millions of albums world-wide with multiple RIAA Gold-certifications.

Third Man Records is excited to announce Vault Package #41, The Go Whatcha Doin’ 20th Anniversary Remix Redux. The package is centered around a “Summer Sun” colored pressing of The Go’s 1999 LP Whatcha Doin‘ (20th Anniversary Remix Edition), originally released on Sub Pop, which features Jack White on lead guitar and was remixed by White himself from the original reel-to-reel tapes at Third Man Studio. Also included in the package are pressings of the FerdinandAttic Demos LP and the Alternate Studio Takes 7″ — both of which are comprised of entirely unreleased material — as well as a 10″ x 8″ photo book titled “The Go In Black And White.” Sign up is open now through July 31 at 12am CST. Watch a trailer for the package HERE.

Detroit in the heady days of 1999 was a town overflowing with electrifying and energetic bands. If one outfit seemed poised above the others to “make it”, the odds-on bet was the Go. Freshly signed to the revered indie label Sub Pop with a clutch of killer songs itching to be laid to tape, their live show was truly thrilling and all the constellations seemed perfectly aligned for their ascendence. Led by band mainstays Bobby Harlow (lead vocals), John Krautner (rhythm guitar) and Marc Fellis (drums) and rounded out by dear friends Dave Buick (bass) and Jack White (lead guitar) they tracked their debut LP Whatcha Doin’ early in the year and by the time it was released in September, multiple line-up changes piled up and momentum seemed to have dissipated. If ever there was a cult record from the genre, the city, the era…Whatcha Doin’ is it. Produced and mixed by Matthew Smith (best known for his work in Detroit psychedelic pop stalwarts Outrageous Cherry), the sounds captured in the studio were an impressionist distillation of the band’s songwriting prowess. While responsible for helping garner the band’s badass rock and roll reputation, there was sentiment amongst some that the stylistic mixing decisions on the as-released LP eschewed the band’s in-person ferocity and ultimately kept the album from catching on to a wider audience.

For years, there were disagreements, concessions, shelved albums, joint tours, buried hatchets, and confusion as to who in the hell even possessed the original master tapes. But now Third Man Records, in conjunction with Sub Pop, is proud to present the 20th anniversary remix of Whatcha Doin’.

“The Go In Black And White”

Working directly from the original reel-to-reel tapes, Jack White hunkered down in his Third Man Studio in Nashville, TN with skilled engineer Bill Skibbe (The Kills, Franz Ferdinand, Black Keys) at the knobs and with additional insight from bandmate Dave Buick, these new mixes of Whatcha Doin’ breathe a fresh, powerful life into the already-strong songs. Utilizing the créme de la créme of studio gear unavailable to the band back in 1999, the likes of Fairchild compressors and Neve consoles helped to crank the album into overdrive. While the original album release utilized takes of the tracks “Meet Me at the Movies” and “You Can Get High” that were early, quasi-demos laid down at White’s Detroit home, this reissues dusts off the previously unheard studio versions of those tunes, of which White describes “…Movies” as “up until that point, my favorite guitar solo I had ever recorded.” Ultimately incorporating a handful of mix suggestions from Bobby Harlow, the end product is a revelation into the true power this line-up of the Go held in the brief 8-month span they were together. Pressed on “Summer Sun” colored vinyl at Third Man Pressing in the Cass Corridor, Detroit.

Pulled from deep within White’s temperature controlled tape vault is a pre-studio run-through of all the tracks that would end up featured on Whatcha Doin’. Recorded in the band’s de facto rehearsal space of the third floor attic of White’s Southwest Detroit home (whereas the previous demos were recorded in the ground floor living room), the Ferdinand Attic Demos are a raw, unfiltered view of the band woodshedding before stepping into the clock-is-ticking confines of a traditional studio. Tacked on the end of the disc is a charming, work-in-progress that wonderfully documents the germination of the Harlow/White collaboration “Time For Moon.” Pressed on “Mottled Carpet Remnant” colored vinyl (in celebration of the flooring in said attic) at Third Man Pressing in Detroit.

Additionally, while cataloging the original studio tapes, previously overlooked alternate takes of both “Keep on Trash” and “Time For Moon” were uncovered. Spiffed up and given the remix treatment, they are the perfect companion 7-inch single here, leaving no stone unturned in sharing the path these five guys blazed two decades ago.

To top it all off, the Go was quite fortunate to be captured by two of the best photographers in all of Detroit during their 1999 heyday. Unearthed for this anniversary, Patrick Pantano’s striking black-and-white live snaps are wonderfully juxtaposed with his unremembered-by-all-involved photos of the band in the studio during the recording of Whatcha Doin’. Furthermore, Doug Coombe’s arresting, stark shots of the band should already be familiar to Vault subscribers via the cover of their Live at the Gold Dollar LP from Vault package 27, we’ve pulled more from his archive and compile them all together for the softcover photo book collection of “The Go in Black and White.”

Deep dives into brief inspirational moments with exploratory abandon was the main impetus behind the creation of the Vault ten (!) years ago and we can’t think of a more apt collection to help celebrate that milestone. Subscriptions are open through July 31st, find all the relevant info at www.thirdmanrecords.com/vault.

“I been looking forward to this for a long time. And I thought this would happen in the future and it did, so now I hope it lasts long. Fact of business, I believe it will.” – Lightnin’ Hopkins

“The Ann Arbor Blues Festival was really like our blues Woodstock. It brought together such an astonishing array of legendary artists, and for me, will always remain one of the greatest and most historic festivals ever.” – Bonnie Raitt (musician and festival attendee)

“Ann Arbor set both the stage and the standard for all the blues festivals that followed… Survivors of the 1960s still ask one another, ‘Were you at Woodstock?’ Those of us who became blues converts ask, ‘Were you at Ann Arbor?’” – Jim O’Neal, cofounder of Living Blues

To celebrate the forthcoming compilation, Third Man Records is proud to present two previously unheard performances on the world’s first Mississippi Fred McDowell 78 RPM record. Though the mesmerizing blues singer and guitarist was from the generation of country blues musicians celebrated for their classic 78 RPM recordings, the world didn’t discover McDowell’s talents until later on. This extremely limited, promo-only release, featuring McDowell’s signature song (“Shake ‘em on Down”) and a rare collaboration with Big Mama Thornton (“My Heavy Load”), is available while supplies last as a free gift with pre-order of the CD or LP via thirdmanstore.com OR first come first served to Third Man Records wholesale partners.

August 1969 might have seen another musical gathering grabbing the world’s attention, but the Ann Arbor Blues Festival has since proven a cultural milestone in its own unique right – the first American festival devoted solely to blues music. Held August 1-3, 1969 at Fuller Flatlands, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, for three days it was not unusual to find scenes like B.B. King playing his forthcoming single for Mississippi Fred McDowell, Big Mama Thornton and Junior Wells or Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Big Joe Williams catching up about grandchildren, life on the road and the recent moon landing. The family reunion backstage led to an all-star game onstage as an audience of eager young blues converts was treated to a living history of the blues from some of its inventors, innovators and greatest talents.

The historic gathering was presented by a small group of blues-obsessed U of M students determined to give their blues heroes and heroines a public spotlight where they might shine before it was too late. Among those enterprising student-promoters was John Fishel, whose teenage brother Jim Fishel, gathered some friends to help record the festival as a personal memento. Taking advantage of their all-access pass and juggling a small Norelco tape recorder from set to set, the friends let the 1⁄4” tape roll. Though field recordings in the literal sense of the term, they capture the brilliance of the musicians, the excitement of the crowd and the loose, convivial nature of the entire festival. Those tapes, long thought to be lost, have now been lovingly restored to capture the electric energy of the landmark concert.

ANN ARBOR BLUES FESTIVAL 1969 is produced by Parker Fishel and Jim Fishel; the project was coordinated by Third Man co-founders Ben Blackwell and Ben Swank. Both volumes include never-before-seen photographs, artist biographies, an exclusive reminiscence from Jim Fishel, and extensive liner notes by Parker Fishel, Sophie Abramowitz and David Beal.

“Across three days in early August 1969, [the Ann Arbor Blues Festival] exposed the work of black blues musicians to a reverential young white audience (many of whom had probably chosen to attend Ann Arbor over Woodstock, which took place two weeks later),” writes Fishel, Abramowitz and Beal in the album’s liner notes. “From the city to the country, the West Coast to the Gulf Coast, Mississippi to Chicago, 24 masters of the idiom were booked to perform for this new audience – an estimated 10,000-plus kids, listening to the artists they saw as vanguards of the music that had dominated the decade’s counterculture. But more importantly, the festival presented a view in miniature of the changing blues community and the often surprising relationships between the musicians who comprised it – some who were still sharecroppers or working day jobs, some who had popular recording careers years before the blues and folk revivals brought them back into the spotlight, and some who had yet to release a full album…The 1969 festival was an exemplary space of communion and reunion. During an interview the following year, Roosevelt Sykes reflected on the experience: ‘We really had some kicks, the musicians. That was one thing that they really didn’t know, they really should have charged the musicians a fee to come. It was worth it, for what y’all paid, it’s worth it for us to see one another! ‘Cause speaking of it, we really enjoy one another that much.’ DownBeat magazine concluded, ‘The Ann Arbor Blues Festival did not make headlines. Yet it was without a doubt the festival of the year, if not the decade.’”

ANN ARBOR BLUES FESTIVAL 1969 VOL. 1 & VOL. 2

(Third Man Records)

Release date: Friday, August 2, 2019

COMPLETE TRACKLISTING

ANN ARBOR BLUES FESTIVAL 1969 LP Vol. 1

1. Roosevelt Sykes – Dirty Mother For You

2. Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup – So Glad You’re Mine

3. J.B. Hutto & His Hawks – Too Much Alcohol

4. Jimmy “Fast Fingers” Dawkins – I Wonder Why

5. Junior Wells – Help Me (A Tribute To Sonny Boy Williamson)

6. B.B. King with Sonny Freeman And The Unusuals – I’ve Got A Mind To Give Up Living

Third Man Hardware is excited to announce their newest pedal The PLASMA Coil, a special version of the PLASMA Pedal created by Gamechanger Audio and Third Man Records. The high-voltage distortion and octave effect pedal — which Jack White is currently using in his rig on tour with The Raconteurs — will be available in standard edition black and special edition yellow (while supplies last) exclusively at Third Man’s online and physical stores now. Watch the demo video for the pedal HERE.

At The PLASMA Coil’s heart is GCA’s innovative High Voltage Distortion technology that expresses audio signal as a series of electrical discharges. Even though they’ve been printing the words: “High Voltage Rock’n’Roll” on AC/DC t-shirts since 1973, PLASMA Distortion is the first (and only) commercial musical device that literally amplifies audio signal to 3500 Volts.

PLASMA COIL takes High Voltage distortion to new heights by adding multiple Octaver-style cirquits, and an additional Effects footswitch that can be toggled as latching or momentary.

Another difference from the original PLASMA Pedal is the removed BLEND control – with PLASMA COIL the signal is always 100% PLASMA – take it or leave it.

Third Man Records, as a record label that makes a specialty of 7″ pressings and live recordings from its famous Blue Room in Nashville, TN, is excited to release Iron & Wine – Live At Third Man Records, which was recorded during his particularly captivating set at the venue in August of 2017. The LP is out today — purchase or stream it HERE.

Armed with spartan set-up of a guitar, microphone and his minimal backing band in front of a sold-out audience, Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam ambled through his discography during this set, on touchstones like “Naked As We Came” from classic album Our Endless Numbered Days, “The Trapeze Swinger” from Around the Well and “Winter Prayers” from Ghost on Ghost. It was a heartfelt experience without sacrificing any charm, personality or gestalt crowd connection.

Today, legendary NYC no-wave group BUSH TETRAS are releasing their new 7″ “There Is A Hum” b/w “Seven Years” on Third Man Records. The standard black vinyl edition is out now, while the limited “Coke bottle clear” version will be available at the release show at NYC’s Mercury Lounge on August 3. More details on the event can be found HERE.

BUSH TETRAS formed in 1979 out of NYCs No Wave/Post Punk/Art Funk/Dance Junk scene. The band’s debut release TOO MANY CREEPS on the legendary 99 Records is one of that scene’s defining moments, capturing perfectly the vibe of that very particular moment in NYC. BUSH TETRAS was one of the supporting acts for The Clash’s mythical 17-show run at Bond International Casino in the spring of ’81. Topper Headon also produced their Rituals EP for Stiff Records. In 1983, the members of BUSH TETRAS went their own ways and the band remained relatively quiet and elusive for the next several decades.

Original members Cynthia Sley, Dee Pop, and Pat Place now joined by Val Opielski taking over bass duties for the late Laura Kennedy. 2018 saw the release of Take The Fall EP on Wharf Cat Records, the band’s first new music in 10+ years and the welcome return of BUSH TETRAS!!! This winter, Third Man cleared their Cass Corridor showroom floor and enlisted the help of Third Man Mastering’s Bill Skibbe and Warren Defever to record “There is A Hum,” “Seven Years” and “Sucker is Born” (Bandcamp exclusive).

It was quick and punk and magical.

BUSH TETRAS’ influence can not be overstated. Enjoy and consider yourself lucky.

Bush Tetras will celebrate the release of their new 45, “There is A Hum” b/w “Seven Years,” on Third Man Records, on Saturday, August 3rd at The Mercury Lounge. Opening will be Thalia Zedek and her group E with selections by DJs Dave Buick (Third Man Records) and Trip Warner (Wharf Cat Records) before, between and after.

Olivia Jean is back on the beat with her second full-length (and first self-produced) album Night Owl, due out August 30, 2019 on Third Man Records. The title track and first single “Night Owl” is available today on streaming services and on 7” vinyl with physical-only B-side “Jaan Pehechaan Ho.” The black vinyl 7” is available now athttps://thirdmanstore.com/night-owl-b-w-jan-pehechaan-ho. Tri-color 7” records will be available at Third Man Records Nashville & Detroit storefronts on Saturday, August 3rd. An accompanying video, directed by Nashville’s Zack Hall and filmed in Third Man Records Blue Room, was also released today. Watch the video HERE and find the audio version of “Night Owl” on all streaming services HERE.

Night Owl is exactly what it sounds like: the wee-hour workings of an artist engrossed in a project, pushing against omnipresent forces of fear and judgment to do exactly what she’s always wanted to do and be exactly what she’s known she is. It’s candy-coated and also bittersweet, fully aware and also full-hearted. Night Owl hits shelves and streaming services on August 30th. Pre-order available today at https://thirdmanstore.com/night-owl.

The album mines the shared spaces between bubblegum, beach pop undercurrents and fuzzed out garage a la B-52s and Dick Dale, lyrically diving headfirst into the frustrations of perfectionism, mental barriers, obsession and modern heartache. Unlike Bathtub Love Killings, on which we found Olivia playing every instrument on the vast majority of the album, Night Owl is decidedly more collaborative, with a studio band of buddies backing up her up.

Olivia Jean, Detroit born n’ bred, current resident of Nashville, TN, first staked her flag with the gothic garage rock upstarts The Black Belles in 2010 and quickly set herself apart from the pack, performing as a side musician to a varied group of stylistically diverse musicians on a variety of instruments, culminating with her debut solo release Bathtub Love Killings in 2014.

Bathtub Love Killings was produced by Jack White with Olivia Jean composing and playing every instrument on the album. The album was an exciting and concise statement with a controlled vision of where rock n’ roll can go in these modern pop-dominated times.

Her latest, Night Owl, takes this vision even further by placing Olivia behind the control desk in the role of producer. Surf guitar, 60s girl group harmonies, and punk commingle into a collection of songs depicting heartache, revenge, guilt, and frustration — it’s “bubblegum garage” at its best. About the Night Owl album name and theme, Olivia Jean says “I am introverted and obsessed with art. I live every day with a lot of anxiety, guilt, doubt, and depression. I get completely obsessed with projects or completely imprisoned by fear of judgment. I find that staying up late is a comfortable place for me to be mentally to work on projects and reflect on life…”

Sitting in the Producer chair also led to the decision to include additional musicians into Olivia’s recording process for the first time, which helped evoke a renewed natural energy to the songs. “This is the first album I have written and produced by myself. It was quite difficult learning how to produce an album on my own without letting my perfectionism and doubt hinder the process. I couldn’t split myself down the middle to be both songwriter and producer. This learning curve caused tons of time to be wasted, frustration to ensue, but also forced me to leave my comfort zone. I learned that an album will never truly feel finished to an artist. Climbing with an album for too long towards an unreachable view of perfection is a waste of time and positive energy. Being the captain of this ship has helped me grow as a musician and as a songwriter knowing what is truly important in an album.”

The new challenge of producing, as well as opening the studio door for other musicians to collaborate, has helped lead to Olivia’s richest collection of songs to date. Surf-inflected originals like “Garage Bat,” “Shut Your Mouth” and “Night Owl” soar and scorch alongside incendiary covers “Brushfire (Flamin’ Groovies)” and album stand-out “Jaan Pehechaan Ho” (Mohammad Rafi – made famous in Terry Zwigoff’s film Ghost World).

“I been looking forward to this for a long time. And I thought this would happen in the future and it did,

so now I hope it lasts long. Fact of business, I believe it will.”

– Lightnin’ Hopkin

“The Ann Arbor Blues Festival was really like our blues Woodstock. It brought together such an astonishing array of legendary artists, and for me, will always remain one of the greatest and most historic festivals ever.”

– Bonnie Raitt (musician and festival attendee)

“Ann Arbor set both the stage and the standard for all the blues festivals that followed…

Survivors of the 1960s still ask one another, ‘Were you at Woodstock?’

Those of us who became blues converts ask, ‘Were you at Ann Arbor?’”

Jim O’Neal, cofounder of Living Blues

Third Man Records has revealed the details for the deluxe edition of the ANN ARBOR BLUES FESTIVAL 1969, a 50th anniversary celebration collecting 24 previously unheard songs by blues legends out this Friday, August 2, 2019. Watch an unboxing video HERE.

Produced by Parker Fishel and Jim Fishel, the ANN ARBOR BLUES FESTIVAL 1969 was coordinated by Third Man co-founders Ben Blackwell and Ben Swank. Both volumes include never-before-seen photographs, artist biographies, an exclusive reminiscence from Jim Fishel, and extensive liner notes by Parker Fishel, Sophie Abramowitz and David Beal. The set will also be available in a special edition featuring two single-color (one blue, one red) printed jackets with complementary colored vinyl, a 58-page perfect bound book with transparent vellum inserts and a short recollection from festival organizer John Fishel, die-cut reproductions of his original festival booking notes, a full-size reproduction of Jim Fishel’s festival program on newsprint paper that includes nearly every artists’ signature, a reproduction of the original festival tickets on various colored papers and a reprint of the original festival poster on silver metallic paper. The package will also include 13 reproductions of original news articles and ads on newsprint paper housed in a hand-stamped envelope. All of this will be packaged in a telescoping box printed on the same silver metallic paper as the poster reproduction with poster art on the cover.

August 1969 might have seen another musical gathering grabbing the world’s attention, but the Ann Arbor Blues Festival has since proven a cultural milestone in its own unique right – the first American festival devoted solely to blues music. Held August 1-3, 1969 at Fuller Flatlands, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, for three days it was not unusual to find scenes like B.B. King playing his forthcoming single for Mississippi Fred McDowell, Big Mama Thornton and Junior Wells or Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Big Joe Williams catching up about grandchildren, life on the road and the recent moon landing. The family reunion backstage led to an all-star game onstage as an audience of eager young blues converts was treated to a living history of the blues from some of its inventors, innovators and greatest talents.

The historic gathering was presented by a small group of blues-obsessed U of M students determined to give their blues heroes and heroines a public spotlight where they might shine before it was too late. Among those enterprising student-promoters was John Fishel, whose teenage brother Jim Fishel, gathered some friends to help record the festival as a personal memento. Taking advantage of their all-access pass and juggling a small Norelco tape recorder from set to set, the friends let the 1⁄4” tape roll. Though field recordings in the literal sense of the term, they capture the brilliance of the musicians, the excitement of the crowd and the loose, convivial nature of the entire festival. Those tapes, long thought to be lost, have now been lovingly restored to capture the electric energy of the landmark concert.

ANN ARBOR BLUES FESTIVAL 1969 is produced by Parker Fishel and Jim Fishel; the project was coordinated by Third Man co-founders Ben Blackwell and Ben Swank. Both volumes include never-before-seen photographs, artist biographies, an exclusive reminiscence from Jim Fishel, and extensive liner notes by Parker Fishel, Sophie Abramowitz and David Beal.

“Across three days in early August 1969, [the Ann Arbor Blues Festival] exposed the work of black blues musicians to a reverential young white audience (many of whom had probably chosen to attend Ann Arbor over Woodstock, which took place two weeks later),” writes Fishel, Abramowitz and Beal in the album’s liner notes. “From the city to the country, the West Coast to the Gulf Coast, Mississippi to Chicago, 24 masters of the idiom were booked to perform for this new audience – an estimated 10,000-plus kids, listening to the artists they saw as vanguards of the music that had dominated the decade’s counterculture. But more importantly, the festival presented a view in miniature of the changing blues community and the often surprising relationships between the musicians who comprised it – some who were still sharecroppers or working day jobs, some who had popular recording careers years before the blues and folk revivals brought them back into the spotlight, and some who had yet to release a full album…The 1969 festival was an exemplary space of communion and reunion. During an interview the following year, Roosevelt Sykes reflected on the experience: ‘We really had some kicks, the musicians. That was one thing that they really didn’t know, they really should have charged the musicians a fee to come. It was worth it, for what y’all paid, it’s worth it for us to see one another! ‘Cause speaking of it, we really enjoy one another that much.’ DownBeat magazine concluded, ‘The Ann Arbor Blues Festival did not make headlines. Yet it was without a doubt the festival of the year, if not the decade.’”

ANN ARBOR BLUES FESTIVAL 1969 VOL. 1 & VOL. 2

(Third Man Records)

Release date: Friday, August 2, 2019

COMPLETE TRACKLISTING

ANN ARBOR BLUES FESTIVAL 1969 LP Vol. 1

Roosevelt Sykes – Dirty Mother For You

Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup – So Glad You’re Mine

J.B. Hutto & His Hawks – Too Much Alcohol

Jimmy “Fast Fingers” Dawkins – I Wonder Why

Junior Wells – Help Me (A Tribute To Sonny Boy Williamson)

B.B. King with Sonny Freeman And The Unusuals – I’ve Got A Mind To Give Up Living

Third Man Records is excited to announce Vault Package #42: THE WHITE STRIPES XX, a 20th anniversary accompaniment to their self-titled debut album. The package includes previously-unheard outtakes from the LP’s recording sessions, the Live At The Ritz – Raleigh, NC – 09/26/99 LP, a DVD containing performance footage from two Michigan performances that year, a 24-page archival booklet featuring never-before-seen photos, lyrics, flyers and other insights, all housed in a hard-cover hinged case. Sign up is open now through October 31 at 12am CST.

1999 was a pivotal year for the White Stripes. From recording their first album through rumors of the band’s demise and embarking on their first-ever tour, the band worked extremely hard and was fortunate to see small but incremental gains from their efforts. Third Man Records is humbled to explore the depths of the band, their self-titled album and the entirety of their 1999 for their 42nd Vault package, THE WHITE STRIPES XX.

Come September of 1999, the band was as surprised as anyone to have been invited to open three performances for indie rock favorites Pavement. Hitting respectable college towns in the South/East, the shows would find the Stripes in front of their largest crowds they’d encountered at that point in their career. A hyper-speed (read: nervous) version of the band’s set at the Recher Theater in Towson, Maryland has been shared in tape-trading circles for nearly 15 years, but it is the far-superior performance at the Ritz in Raleigh, North Carolina the following evening that finds Jack and Meg in top form. From the early workouts on fan-favorite covers like Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and Brendan Benson’s “Good to Me” through the off-the-cuff take on Earl King’s (via the Gories) “Trick Bag” and absolute bombastic runs of “Broken Bricks” and “The Big Three Killed My Baby” show highlights how quickly the band was to find their footing in front of unfamiliar audiences, and ultimately, win them over.

Additionally, Third Man has unearthed footage from two pivotal, game-changing live performances by the White Stripes in their hometown. The March 13th performance at Paycheck’s in Hamtramck is remarkable for many reasons: a crowd sang along to a White Stripes song for the first time (“Sugar Never Tasted So Good”), the band played their first-ever encore (“Slicker Drips”), and the group ultimately put to rest the conjecture that it would be their last-ever performance. The night was truly a watershed moment in the duo’s history.

Nearly two months later, their debut album is released and the May 30th performance celebrating its unveiling to the world is as equally groundbreaking and sublime. Highlights include the first public use of Jack’s soon-to-be-signature Airline Res-o-glass guitar, his first utilization of an ancillary, affected vocal microphone on stage, and the only known time Jack White licked a cartoonishly large faux peppermint while in the middle of a guitar solo.

Finally, the coup de grace: an exhaustive, insightful, 11.75″ x 11.75″ booklet containing the bevy of photos, flyers, lyrics, receipts, musings and anything/everything that, at the time, probably seemed just like garbage, but now, twenty years later, provides all kinds of context and clues into how this odd dyad from Southwest Detroit was well on their way to a path of rock and roll flag-waving.

Subscriptions are open from now through October 31st.

N.B. This will be the last package (Vault 42) that the Vault subscription remains priced at $60 US/$70 CAN/$80 INTL. Beginning with Vault 43 (subscription window November 1st- January 31st, package TBA) quarterly subscriptions will be increased $5, meaning $65 US/$75 CAN/$85 INTL. Subscribers can lock in at the current price point by purchasing the new option of an annual subscription (available soon!). More details to come later this month and next.

THE WHITE STRIPES XX

Self-Titled Outtakes

Dead Leaves
I Fought Piranhas
Jimmy The Exploder
Let’s Build a Home
Little Red Book (Burt Bacharach)
Screwdriver
Slicker Drips
Sugar Never Tasted So Good
Wasting My Time
Why Can’t You Be Nicer to Me?

Third Man Records is excited to release the newest songs from Austin, TX’s Ghost Wolves, available today on 7” vinyl and digital (https://smarturl.it/theghostwolves). Formed in 2011 and hardly taking time to sit since then, the Ghost Wolves create, record and tour at a dizzying clip. Blending rock n’ roll, punk rock, garage and blues with electronic elements, the duo has earned a reputation as one of the hardest working bands in the modern rock n’ roll underground, touring internationally for almost 8 years straight, with nearly 1000 shows between them in 23+ countries including most of western Europe, the USA, U.K. and Japan. See below for their list of currently-announced US tour dates.

The recording sessions took place during a very dark time for Carley and Jonny, who have been married for 7 years. Jonny’s father, John, received a terminal cancer diagnosis in late 2018. “I was in Connecticut with my dad in the hospital and Carley was in Texas sending me song demos. I’d write her back my thoughts and we went on for a while like that. I was up there almost a month when they first hospitalized him. When he stabilized somewhat, I went back to Austin to take a break and be home briefly, and that’s when we recorded this. So we were creating with all of that hurt going on in the background. It was therapeutic for me in a way, to be there with these people, working on art. And I think it came out on the record. It’s definitely darker and more intimate than our previous albums.”

The three tracks from the sessions are out today on 7″ vinyl and digitally by Third Man Records. About the partnership, Carley remembers, “We sent a bunch of labels all the music we recorded, 10 tracks total. When Third Man said they wanted to release some of it, we were popping champagne and screaming at the sky. For us it was like hitting the lotto. We’re just fans of the label. They have so many of our heroes in their catalogs, people like Muddy Waters, Wanda Jackson, Dead Weather, Jerry Lee Lewis, the White Stripes. It’s mind-blowing that our music will be there alongside them. It doesn’t feel real, it feels like a dream.”

At Muddy Roots festival in Belgium this summer, the sound system caught fire and blew up during The Ghost Wolves’ set. Mid-show, smoke wafted from the speaker stacks and obscured the stage. “We kept playing.” remembers Jonny Wolf “Until there wasn’t sound anymore. Then Carley crowd surfed. There was almost a riot. It was incredible.”

An uncontrolled fire, or an explosion, may be the perfect way to describe the experience of seeing The Ghost Wolves play live. No two shows are alike, and the audience is as much a participatory body as they are paying guests of the band. Carley Wolf is constantly engaging them, urging them to sing and dance, turning her up amps louder, while Jonny hits the drums harder and harder, until all present enter a feverous trance and the walls of the club seem to be ready to come apart. “If we don’t walk off stage drenched to our underwear in sweat, it was a bad gig.” Jonny says “That’s how we gauge if we sucked or we did well. By our sweat levels.”

Rock n’ roll is their genre, but the Austin, Texas-based duo explores a wider palette of sounds than just the guitar and drums. Jonny keeps an analog synthesizer and a tape delay box behind his kit, often reaching with a drum stick clenched in hand to smash the keys or spin a knob. Space rays, low rumbles, tape noise and other unidentifiable noises roll over Carley’s thunderous one-string guitar tones and helium-pitch vocal lines. She recently scored a gig as a cartoon character in a kids show, playing the lead singer of a teenager punk band. “It was a dream come true.” She remarks in her natural Betty Boop voice.

The Ghost Wolves’ name comes from a family history on Carley’s side. “I was raised with a pack of wolf hybrid and northern dogs on my parents ranch in central Texas, in the hill country. We’d have a bunch at once, sometimes as many as 11 or 12. My dad is an animal whisperer kind of guy and would rescue them from bad situations, because they don’t make great pets for most people. But with a lot of love and room to run, they became members of our family.” Carley remembers. “When we started the band, we would take some of them on tour with us. They’re our mascots, security, merch sellers, and best friends on the road. And when they die, we really feel it, we miss them so much.”

The duo has released two LP’s and an EP so far on labels from Austin, Berlin, and Nashville. They’ve also toured the world since starting their band 8 years ago, playing nearly 1000 shows in 23 countries. The Ghost Wolves’ recorded music has been featured in film and TV by HBO, ABC, CBS, Disney, Netflix, MTV, Showtime and Alamo Drafthouse. The duo’s ongoing clothing collaboration with Tokyo fashion brand Hysteric Glamour, now entering its 6th season, is currently available at the company’s brand stores throughout Asia and online.

Their most recent recording was made with engineer/producer John Michael Schoepf (bassist for Ray Wylie Hubbard / Night Glitter) in his Austin living room studio. “We were working on 1/2 inch tape and an 8 track Tascam recorder from the 1970’s. We made a point of having no computers or screens in the studio for maximum clarity and focus,” Jonny tells us. “We didn’t want distractions. For us, it was just hanging out with John Mike, who’s one of our best friends in the world, having some beer and rolling tape into the night.”

“Bands that show indescribable promise, deliver on it for a brief moment, then spectacularly implode are a dime a dozen in rock & roll, but few of their stories are as dramatic, intriguing and, ultimately, as tragic as Jonathan Fire*Eater’s.” – The Quietus

Highly influential New York City quintet Jonathan Fire*Eater will reissue an expanded edition of their high-water mark EP Tremble Under Boom Lights on October 18 via Third Man Records. Hear opening cut “The Search For Cherry Red” HERE. Jonathan Fire*Eater is credited in large part with kick-starting the New York City rock & roll revival that birthed The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem and many more, and several of its members eventually went on to form The Walkmen.

Originally a tight five-track EP, the Third Man Records reissue of Tremble Under Boom Lights has been expanded to include five additional tracks, including previously-unreleased bonus track “In The Head.” In addition to a new color scheme on the cover artwork, this reissue will be available in two limited colored vinyl variants. A Winston Plum colored vinyl LP is exclusive to indie stores (limited to 500 copies), and a yellow vinyl LP is exclusive to Rough Trade (limited to 300 copies).

In close collaboration with Lupton’s estate, friends, and former bandmates, Third Man Books is proud to realize Jonathan Fire*Eater vocalist Stewart Lupton’s longtime wish to publish a collection of his poems.The Plural Atmosphere is a 45 page limited edition, Risograph printed chapbook of selected poems by Stewart Lupton. The collection, Lupton’s first, will be released alongside the Jonathan Fire*Eater EP reissue on October 18. Both the black vinyl and chapbook will be available to purchase as a bundle — pre-order HERE.

Lupton’s love for language was always evident in his songs and also the poems he increasingly wrote and turned toward during his life. The Plural Atmosphere is Lupton’s first published collection, one that will undoubtedly define his legacy as a poet with that already as a songwriter and musician.

In a world chock full of flame-outs, coulda-been contenders and great white hopes, the band Jonathan Fire*Eater are among the “almost-est.” Widely praised as the mid-Nineties next-big-thing, they are largely credited with being the earliest purveyors of the “New York City Rock and Roll Revival” circa 2001. Which would be great, if only the band hadn’t imploded by 1998.

The quintet employed a fresh, one-of-a-kind blend of sly rock and roll reference and reverence. Their press release at the time name-dropped all the correct and relevant influences… the Stooges, the Modern Lovers, Tom Waits, the Scientists, ? and the Mysterians, the Cramps, Nation of Ulysses, the Stones, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds…all markers conveying the point that Fire-Eater’s dark, brooding overtones are complemented by springy Farfisa tones and impressionistic, evocative lyrics.

The band was inarguably in top form with the 1996 EP release of Tremble Under Boom Lights. Mean and lean at only five tracks, those songs click together perfectly, enough so to kick-start a major label bidding frenzy which found the band signing a lucrative, seven-figure contract. Showcasing lead singer Stewart Lupton’s redolent exercises in picturesque poetry, coupled with Matt Barrick’s inimitable percussive attack, Paul Maroon’s wide, unadorned guitar blistering throughout while Walter Martin’s choice, deliberate organ accompaniment and Tom Frank’s propulsive, bottom-heavy bass all join together for a full, beautiful, glorious masterpiece.

Lead-off track “The Search For Cherry Red” would not only provide the EP with a title via its lyrics, but would also see a second life as covered by esteemed rock-and-rollers The Kills. “Give Me Daughters” is enviable for the perspective it foresees, when taking into consideration its narrator was barely 21 years old at the time. Songs flit about cockfights, open caskets, ballroom gowns, switchblades, motorcycle accidents and jewel thieves all to propel the record into a world of juvenile delinquent attitude and vivid cinematic color.

For the Japanese release of Tremble Under Boom Lights, the five-song running order was accentuated with four bonus tracks…three songs from the band’s 1995 debut single and a spritely cover of the Lee Hazlewood gem “The City Never Sleeps.”

With the 2019 reissue, Third Man Records is proud to make these seminal songs available digitally and on vinyl for the first time in over two decades. All parties involved are beyond overjoyed to augment the running order of the Japanese version of Tremble Under Boom Lights to include the bonus track “In the Head.” Touted by the band members as the last song they ever recorded, it is wincingly brilliant, the most artful, dudes-in-their-early-twenties version of a swan song that one may ever hear.

After the break-up, Barrick, Maroon and Martin would go on to form the backbone of the Walkmen and enjoy a solid run with their seven full-length releases. All three are still active in the music business today. Frank went on to a career in journalism, writing for Vanity Fair and acting as contributing editor forWashington Monthly. Despite struggling with addiction for years, Stewart Lupton notched solid efforts with his bands the Child Ballads and the Beatings. Lupton passed away suddenly on May 27th, 2018 at the age of 43.

Praise for Steward Lupton

“Stewart [Lupton] had genius, but what first made the world notice him was his daring. The sorrow tied to that quality has been mentioned in obituaries, for he gave most things a try, narcotics among them. But the joy of it was what he said, sang, explored, and wrote, when others wouldn’t — T.A Frank, Vanity Fair

“The very first photo in Lizzy Goodman’s recent oral history, Meet Me In The Bathroom, is of Stewart Lupton smoking a cigarette, framed by enormous angel wings. It’s a fitting image to begin Goodman’s story of New York’s rock rebirth in the early 2000s—a story that really began several years earlier, when the Lupton-fronted Jonathan Fire*Eater first emerged…” — AV Club

“Lupton offered tea, flipped the Dead Moon record spinning on the turntable, then gave me a lovely tour through his mess, telling me about the times he’d met Patti Smith and John Ashbery, and how the poetry of Italian philosopher Giacomo Leopardi reminded him of Elliott Smith … [Lupton] had read all of those poetry books strewn across the living room floor. Listen to the lyrics of “Cheekbone Hollows,” a song that creates a scene worthy of Leonard Cohen, but with a Rolling Stones riff shaking its tail in the background.” — Chris Richards, Washington Post

Third Man Records is excited to share its full slate of Record Store Day Black Friday 2019 offerings. Atop the list is Patsy Cline‘sSweet Dreams: The Complete Decca Studio Masters 1960-1963 3xLP, which will be available in yellow, purple and red vinyl variants. Next comes Jonathan Fire*Eater‘s Wolf Songs For Lambs LP, which will be available in brown vinyl. Finally, the label will be releasing Tenacious D‘s long-awaited Blue Series 7″, which will be available in black vinyl with tri-color variants available only at TMR’s Nashville and Detroit storefronts. See below for more details.

Released for the first time on vinyl, Sweet Dreams: The Complete Decca Studio Masters (1960 – 1963) is an absolute must for any country music fan. This beautiful collection gathers all 51 tracks that Cline recorded with Owen Bradley after she left a restrictive deal at 4 Star Records and joined on with Decca Records in 1960.

It’s hard to believe that these songs were all recorded in such a small time frame; so many of her top hits and fan-favorites were all captured during this very fruitful period with Bradley at Decca. Right off the bat, the new sessions struck gold with the classic “I Fall To Pieces,” Cline’s first Country #1.

Most notably, working with Bradley led Cline to find her signature, distinctive sound – braiding wistful country music ballads with big-band pop sensibilities that shone a spotlight on her elastic, smooth vocals, forging the path for future country-pop crossovers. With her sound in place, the duo doubled-down on their successes, with sessions that produced chart-toppers “She’s Got You,” “Crazy” and “Sweet Dreams (of You).”

Featuring absolutely stunning, powerful, full-color photos printed on the interior of the gatefold 3xLP jacket, Sweet Dreams is as just as rewarding for the eyes as the ears. The songs on this 51 track collection form the crown jewels of her discography and cement Patsy Cline’s legacy as one of country music’s greatest of all time.

Jonathan Fire*Eater – Wolf Songs For Lambs LP (Brown vinyl)

At the height of Fire*eater mania, as the first big-ticket signing to the Dreamworks super-label, featured in spreads across all the hippest and au courant magazines at the time, amidst rumors of band members rejecting lucrative offers to be Calvin Klein models, the fact that they were able to deliver an album as solid as Wolf Songs For Lambs is still something to marvel at. Some of the band’s best work exists in songs like the wrist-breakingly beautiful drum work of “When the Curtain Calls for You” or the slappy, percussive reverb of “No Love Like That” or the twisted carnival organ figures carved in “These Little Monkeys.” The album explores emotive depths in the haunting corners of “Everybody Plays the Mime” or the plaintive simplicity of “A Night In the Nursery” through the charming, doo wop-styled backing vocal “ooh oohs” of “Inpatient Talent Show”…all of which seem to presage the slightly different downtempo direction band members Paul Maroon, Walter Martin and Matt Barrick would employ upon their formation of the Walkmen years later.

As is far too common in the realm of “popular” music, the public was in a full-on Britney and Bizkit frenzy and Jonathan Fire*Eater was unable to connect with the masses before their implosion in 1998. But Wolf Songs For Lambs, along with their previous albums, has long stood as a totem amongst the die-hard supporters of the group, spreading the word like gospel and converting heathens into believers for over twenty years.

This version released by Third Man Records was cut directly from the original 1/4” analog master tapes, is the first vinyl issue of the album since 1997 and is the first-ever vinyl release of the album in North America.

The long-awaited, heavily-hinted project between Jack White and Jack Black is here, in the form of a Jack White-produced Blue Series 7” featuring the incomparable Tenacious D. Kage and Jables stopped by Third Man Studios in Nashville to record this hilarious A-side-only single, with an absolutely iconic cover photo shot against the famous Blue Room wall at Third Man headquarters. We are honored to release Tenacious D’s first 7” single since 2006 and to make this release the first Blue Series single in over 4 years.

Third Man Records is excited to share Season One of its new podcast Striped: The Story Of The White Stripes, hosted by Sean Cannon. Listen to the trailer HERE, and check out the first two episodes of the show on Apple Podcasts or wherever you consume podcasts.

“Lately I’ve been afraid of getting in a car crash and having my last dying words be ‘shit, I really should’ve gotten the White Stripes story down for posterity,’” Third Man co-founder and White Stripes archivist Ben Blackwell said. “This is my attempt to avail myself to somewhat less lame last words.”

In season one of Striped, music journalist Sean Cannon takes you through the early years of The White Stripes by talking to the people who witnessed it all firsthand — from a young Jack White practicing loudly in his attic to The White Stripes wowing their tourmates Pavement in late 1999. You’ll hear from members of The MC5, Pavement, The Raconteurs, The Detroit Cobras, The Dirtbombs, The Soledad Brothers, filmmaker Lance Bangs, and more.

About Striped: The Story Of The White Stripes

Two decades ago, The White Stripes hit the scene in a real way. Jack and Meg White dropped their debut album, blew minds, toured with Pavement, and sowed the seeds for worldwide rock and roll domination — with some bumps along the way. You’ll hear that story from the people who witnessed it firsthand.

Sean Cannon is a Peabody Award-winning journalist, acclaimed public radio host, and cat rap pioneer. You read that right: cat rap pioneer. His work has been covered by The New York Times, The Guardian, Pitchfork, Washington Post, Vulture, Rolling Stone, and many others. People Magazine even called him “[a] host.” Now, that’s a ringing endorsement!

“Bands that show indescribable promise, deliver on it for a brief moment, then spectacularly implode are a dime a dozen in rock & roll, but few of their stories are as dramatic, intriguing and, ultimately, as tragic as Jonathan Fire*Eater’s.” – The Quietus

Highly influential New York City quintet Jonathan Fire*Eater has reissued an expanded and remastered edition of their high-water mark EP Tremble Under Boom Lights, out today via Third Man Records digitally and on 12” LP. Listen to the record or purchase HERE. Jonathan Fire*Eater is credited in large part with kick-starting the New York City rock & roll revival that birthed The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem and many more, and several of its members eventually went on to form The Walkmen.

Originally a tight five-track EP, the Third Man Records reissue of Tremble Under Boom Lights has been remastered and expanded to include five additional tracks, including previously-unreleased bonus track “In The Head.” In addition to a new color scheme on the cover artwork, this reissue will be available in two limited colored vinyl variants. A Winston Plum colored vinyl LP is exclusive to indie stores (limited to 500 copies), and a yellow vinyl LP is exclusive to Rough Trade (limited to 300 copies).

In close collaboration with Lupton’s estate, friends, and former bandmates, Third Man Books is proud to realize Jonathan Fire*Eater vocalist Stewart Lupton’s longtime wish to publish a collection of his poems. The Plural Atmosphere is a 45 page limited edition, Risograph printed chapbook of selected poems by Stewart Lupton. The collection, Lupton’s first, is released alongside the Jonathan Fire*Eater EP reissue today, available for purchase as a bundle or individually — purchase HERE.

Lupton’s love for language was always evident in his songs and also the poems he increasingly wrote and turned toward during his life. The Plural Atmosphere is Lupton’s first published collection, one that will undoubtedly define his legacy as a poet with that already as a songwriter and musician.

In a world chock full of flame-outs, coulda-been contenders and great white hopes, the band Jonathan Fire*Eater are among the “almost-est.” Widely praised as the mid-Nineties next-big-thing, they are largely credited with being the earliest purveyors of the “New York City Rock and Roll Revival” circa 2001. Which would be great, if only the band hadn’t imploded by 1998.

The quintet employed a fresh, one-of-a-kind blend of sly rock and roll reference and reverence. Their press release at the time name-dropped all the correct and relevant influences… the Stooges, the Modern Lovers, Tom Waits, the Scientists, ? and the Mysterians, the Cramps, Nation of Ulysses, the Stones, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds…all markers conveying the point that Fire*Eater’s dark, brooding overtones are complemented by springy Farfisa tones and impressionistic, evocative lyrics.

The band was inarguably in top form with the 1996 EP release of Tremble Under Boom Lights. Mean and

lean at only five tracks, those songs click together perfectly, enough so to kick-start a major label bidding frenzy which found the band signing a lucrative, seven-figure contract. Showcasing lead singer Stewart Lupton’s redolent exercises in picturesque poetry, coupled with Matt Barrick’s inimitable percussive attack, Paul Maroon’s wide, unadorned guitar blistering throughout while Walter Martin’s choice, deliberate organ accompaniment and Tom Frank’s propulsive, bottom-heavy bass all join together for a full, beautiful, glorious masterpiece.

Lead-off track “The Search For Cherry Red” would not only provide the EP with a title via its lyrics, but would also see a second life as covered by esteemed rock-and-rollers The Kills. “Give Me Daughters” is enviable for the perspective it foresees, when taking into consideration its narrator was barely 21 years old at the time. Songs flit about cockfights, open caskets, ballroom gowns, switchblades, motorcycle accidents and jewel thieves all to propel the record into a world of juvenile delinquent attitude and vivid cinematic color.

For the Japanese release of Tremble Under Boom Lights, the five-song running order was accentuated with four bonus tracks…three songs from the band’s 1995 debut single and a spritely cover of the Lee Hazlewood gem “The City Never Sleeps.”

With the 2019 reissue, Third Man Records is proud to make these seminal songs available digitally and on vinyl for the first time in over two decades. All parties involved are beyond overjoyed to augment the running order of the Japanese version of Tremble Under Boom Lights to include the bonus track “In the Head.” Touted by the band members as the last song they ever recorded, it is wincingly brilliant, the most artful, dudes-in-their-early-twenties version of a swan song that one may ever hear.

After the break-up, Barrick, Maroon and Martin would go on to form the backbone of the Walkmen and enjoy a solid run with their seven full-length releases. All three are still active in the music business today. Frank went on to a career in journalism, writing for Vanity Fair and acting as contributing editor for Washington Monthly. Despite struggling with addiction for years, Stewart Lupton notched solid efforts with his bands the Child Ballads and the Beatings. Lupton passed away suddenly on May 27th, 2018 at the age of 43.

Praise for Stewart Lupton:

“Stewart [Lupton] had genius, but what first made the world notice him was his daring.The sorrow tied to that quality has been mentioned in obituaries, for he gave most things a try, narcotics among them. But the joy of it was what he said, sang, explored, and wrote, when others wouldn’t.” — T.A Frank, Vanity Fair

“The very first photo in Lizzy Goodman’s recent oral history, Meet Me In The Bathroom, is of Stewart Lupton smoking a cigarette, framed by enormous angel wings. It’s a fitting image to begin Goodman’s story of New York’s rock rebirth in the early 2000s—a story that really began several years earlier, when the Lupton-fronted Jonathan Fire*Eater first emerged…” — AV Club

“Lupton offered tea, flipped the Dead Moon record spinning on the turntable, then gave me a lovely tour through his mess, telling me about the times he’d met Patti Smith and John Ashbery, and how the poetry of Italian philosopher Giacomo Leopardi reminded him of Elliott Smith … [Lupton] had read all of those poetry books strewn across the living room floor.Listen to the lyrics of “Cheekbone Hollows,” a song that creates a scene worthy of Leonard Cohen, but with a Rolling Stones riff shaking its tail in the background.” — Chris Richards, Washington Post

Third Man Records is excited to announce the Third Man Turntable, created in partnership with Shinola. The two revered Detroit institutions have combined their efforts and the superior craftsmanship both brands are known for to create a very limited-edition Third Man-centric run of Shinola’s already-beloved turntables. The Third Man Turntable is available for pre-order online now and will be available in Third Man Records stores on Black Friday.

The limited edition Third Man Turntable is a joint effort between the Shinola Audio team and Third Man Records. In their ongoing mission to empower new generations of music lovers and vinyl enthusiasts, it felt right for Third Man to strike up a partnership with Shinola, because a collaboration like this needs to be fueled by a mutual passion for well designed objects and appreciation for the power of music.

Every element, including the craftsmanship of the plinth, precision-machined aluminum platter, and powerful, ultra-quiet motor, is hand-assembled piece by piece. The turntable features a built in, switchable phono preamplifier and a belt driven pulley with speeds of 33 1/3 rpm and 45rpm. It is equipped with an Ortofon 2M blue phono cartridge with many components made by VPI Industries, an American veteran of turntable manufacturing.

Darkroom/Interscope Records artist Billie Eilish, accompanied by her brother and chief collaborator FINNEAS, performed an intimate acoustic set for a room of excited fans and friends in The Blue Room at Nashville’s Third Man Records last night. The set was recorded live on Third Man’s direct-to-acetate system, and the vinyl version will be available in December only at Third Man retail locations in Nashville and Detroit. There will be a limited edition black & blue version for attendees only, featuring one-of-a-kind artwork created by Billie Eilish during her evening spent at Third Man headquarters.

Billie was introduced by Jack White, who said Billie is “someone we really love, and we think is really innovative and inspiring.” Before playing her final song of the night (“when the party’s over”), Billie Eilish praised Jack for “inspiring a whole generation of people to do what they want.”

It was a big year on the charts for six-time 2019 American Music Award nominee Billie Eilish. The 17-year old singer, songwriter and musician debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with her album WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?. She scored her first No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 with “bad guy,” which has since become the longest-running Hot 100 top ten hit by a female artist in the last century and the most-streamed song on Spotify throughout 2019*, amassing more than 3 billion global audio streams across all platforms, and climbing to No. 1 at Top 40 and Alternative radio. WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? is now the second-highest selling album of 2019 and biggest North American debut album of the decade (male, female or group), shifting 313,000 units in its first week and hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart for 3 nonconsecutive weeks. Billie has now earned more than 24 billion combined career audio and video streams, while her 2020 WHERE DO WE GO? World Arena Tour sold out of 500,000+ tickets within an hour of on-sale, beginning March 9, 2020. *excludes remixes

Today Third Man Records, as a record label that makes a specialty of vinyl pressings of live recordings from its famous Blue Room in Nashville, TN, is excited to release the Rostam – Live At Third Man Records LP, which was recorded direct-to-2″ tape in the Blue Room on January 30, 2018. The album is now available for purchase HERE.

Recorded shortly after his solo debut album Half-Light (and about 2 years following his departure from Vampire Weekend), Third Man had the distinct pleasure of hosting Rostam, as he graced the Third Man Blue Room stage in Nashville with a penetratingly thoughtful yet cheery set of whole-hearted indie electronica, filled out with bongos and a string section.

The live document is a very special one because, save one song, it contains only songs from Half-Light, tour-tight and with clever nuances, nods and charm that can only be captured live. Not to say that this was anything but an outstanding live recording, complete with expertly commanded vocals and elegantly crafted strings. For those of us who weren’t able to see live, a standout moment is the playful fourth track “Wood”, which nourishes a lush, dynamic, beautiful little world into The Greater Consciousness.

Third Man Records is excited to announce Vault Package #43: The Raconteurs – Live In Tulsa, a 3xLP set capturing the band’s electric three-night run at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, OK in October of this year. The package includes three differently-colored LPs, a Born And Razed Blu-Ray featuring Jack White and Brendan Benson’s solo sets at Third Man Cass Corridor earlier this year, and a Raconteurs mystery flexi-disc. Sign up is open now through January 31 at 12am CST.

“This is my favorite place to play in the world.”

A more-fitting sentiment we cannot conjure and is the perfect stage banter quote from Jack White to introduce the triple-LP live recording culling the best of the best from the Raconteurs recent three night stand at the legendary Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma from October 2019.

As the Raconteurs are allegedly the first band to ever sell out three consecutive shows at Cain’s Ballroom, it was only fitting to mark the occasion by recording each night, culling only the best of each of those performances, and fusing them together for a career-spanning, masterwork of an album.

Highlighting recent entries in their catalog like the infectious “Help Me Stranger” and the whirling “Bored and Razed” while paying deference to momentous sing-alongs like “Carolina Drama” and “Steady, As She Goes” to absolutely mind-bending, room-levitating blues expression via “Blue Veins” and even then you’re only just scratching the surface.

Captured at the pinnacle of the band’s touring behind their chart topping album Help Us Stranger, the electrifying live performances place a raw, unbound energy behind the entire breadth of the band’s catalog, including gems from their 2008 LP Consolers of the Lonely and their 2006 debut Broken Boy Soldiers.

Housed in a magnificent tri-fold jacket and appropriating the Matthew Jacobson-designed artwork which highlights the Art Deco frieze of the Tulsa Fire Alarm building (which was used for the three Cain’s concert posters) and pressed on vibrant copper, green and black colored vinyl…the whole shebang is truly something to behold.

The fitting companion piece to this explosive 3xLP is the intimate performance of Raconteurs’ dual frontmen Brendan Benson and Jack White performing as a duo on July 9th 2019.

Shot at Third Man Records Cass Corridor storefront on White’s 44th birthday, the jam-packed room still only fitting 300 attendees, Brendan and Jack laid out sparse, explorative takes on not only Raconteurs songs, but other classics from their expansive back catalogs. Performances of Raconteurs faves like “Only Child” and “Now That You’re Gone” sound unlike any other version before or since, while the vibe propelling songs like the White Stripes “Sugar Never Tasted So Good” or Benson’s “Metarie” are reminiscent of times back when these two guys would just goof around in Detroit dive bars while a handful of uninterested patrons pretended to not be bothered by their racket.

About that…as a bonus to the mutli-camera, HD, Blu-Ray, 4k, 16-channel audio with super crystal clear capture of the above-mentioned performance, it felt fitting to tack on the ultra lo-fi, camcorder and condenser microphone capture of the first-ever performance of Jack White and Brendan Benson together. Playing for free at the Garden Bowl Lounge in Detroit on March 14th, 1999, the gig shows the two as if without a care in the world, having a blast and rolling through songs of which only TWO had been released by that point. An intimate, charming artifact of a simpler time.

And for the record, Pink Floyd’s “Fearless” was performed at BOTH of these shows, twenty years apart but no less magnificent.

For something a little bit different, Third Man is offering a MYSTERY Raconteurs flexi-disc as the bonus item in this package. Let the speculation begin!

The Raconteurs Live at Cain’s Ballroom 3xLP setlist:

Bored and Razed

Blue Veins

Consoler of the Lonely

Help Me Stranger

Only Child

Sunday Driver

Now That You’re Gone

Somedays (I Don’t Feel Like Trying)

Broken Boy Soldier

Carolina Drama

Thoughts and Prayers

Steady, As She Goes

and more!

Brendan Benson and Jack White Live at Third Man Records Cass Corridor July 9th, 2019 setlist:

Fearless (Pink Floyd)

Sugar Never Tasted So Good (The White Stripes)

Metarie (Brendan Benson)

Only Child (The Raconteurs)

Lucille (Little Richard)

Love Interruption (Jack White)

Now That You’re Gone (The Raconteurs)

Shine The Light on Me (The Raconteurs)

As Ugly As I Seem (The White Stripes)

Together (The Raconteurs)

We’re Going to Be Friends (The White Stripes)

Help Me Stranger (The Raconteurs)

Brendan Benson and Jack White Live at the Garden Bowl Lounge March 14, 1999 setlist:

Brendan Benson is excited to announce the reissue of his seminal debut album One Mississippi, due December 6 via Third Man Records. Twenty-three years after its initial release, the Third Man Records reissue of One Mississippi is the FIRST-EVER vinyl pressing of this now classic album. The deluxe version of the reissue will be available on clear vinyl, and the standard version will be available on black vinyl. The latter is now available for pre-order.

“It’s been a long time coming!” Benson said. “My first album, One Mississippi is finally available on vinyl! Thank you to the miracle workers at Third Man Records for making it so!”

The reissue follows a banner year for Benson, one that saw his songs rise to #1 on the Billboard 200 chart with The Raconteurs’ long-awaited new album Help Us Stranger, as well as performances on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel Live and a performance and interview on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. Benson is currently working on a new solo LP — stay tuned for more details.

Years before “Detroit” was the first word on the lips of taste-fakers, hype-stokers, scene-stealers and fame-lords the world over, Brendan Benson’s sheep-in-wolves’ clothing debut album One Mississippi was the unassuming first shot fired from the city and players that would soon become feted beyond their wildest imagination.

From the gallant album-opener “Tea” (a song which particularly resonated with Japanese fans, of whom hundreds excitedly sent him fan mail containing tea bags) through the propulsive swell of “Sittin’ Pretty” and the undeniable “hit” of “Crosseyed” to the quirky “Insects Rule” (which was jammed on live by Foo Fighters?!?!?)… Benson’s craft is fully on display here. With half the songs here co-written by the estimable Jason Falkner (Jellyfish, Beck), the end result is an unabashed pop album, accentuated by Brendan’s brilliant turn of phrase and preternatural ear for a melody. The album also stands out as the first full-length project helmed by venerated super-producer Ethan Johns (Paul McCartney, Kings of Leon) with One Mississippi serving as a unifying point in the careers of Johns, Benson, and Falkner that found them all mutually ascendant.

Third Man Records is excited to announce Maggot Brain, a new, full-color quarterly edited by noted Detroit music scribe Mike McGonigal. The December/January/February issue is available now, and yearly four-issue subscriptions can be purchased HERE.

We love you and promise to never have a ‘real’ website. Long live print!

We miss cigar-smelling newsstands crammed with amazing publications from everywhere all at once. We miss Creem. We miss Ragtime Ephemeralist. We miss Spy. We miss NY Rocker. We miss weirdo newsprint thrust at us right by subway entrances. We miss Weirdo. We miss Locus Solus. We miss Off Our Backs. We miss Low Rider. We miss Kicks. We miss The Voice. We miss Motorbooty. We miss Avalanche. We miss Grand Royal. We miss Slash. We miss the Gentlewomen of California. We miss Raw. We miss being able to find stacks of old Oz, It, or Black Panther newspapers in the back of that used bookstore in the strip mall. We miss the red and black. We miss the crowding into See Hear. We miss Index Magazine.

We miss anything that Joe Brainard did a cover for, that printed words by Lucy Lippard, that ran yet another bare-chested image of Iggy Pop, that told stories for no reason other than they must be told. And yeah, we are aware how cheesy that last bit sounds, but we are pretty much cool with being cheesy — just look what the fuck kind of politics irony, disaffection, and that laziest vice of privilege have got us into.

And yes, you get it, we love print but we do not merely live in the past surrounded by the moldy old, really. We mean, fantagraphics is still publishing new issues of Love & Rockets, plus there is so much new stuff. From every single piece of paper at the Printed Matter Book Fair to the eight-colored silkscreen books of Le Dernier Cri, from your scrawled punk grad thesis ‘zines to the perfectly printed works of Eberhardt Press, there is still so much, and so much we do not know about being made now. And we still believe in the democratizing possibilities of the internet, despite its current state. We’re not luddites, but. Just please don’t ask us where our website is.

Austin, TX-based duo Ghost Wolves are excited to share the video for “Fist” from their 2019 Third Man Records 7″. The video, which was animated by the band’s own Carley Wolf, can be found HERE. The band will be touring extensively in 2020, first across their home state of Texas, then through much of Western Europe. See below for the full list of currently-announced tour dates.

Formed in 2011 and hardly taking time to sit since then, the Ghost Wolves create, record and tour at a dizzying clip. Blending rock n’ roll, punk rock, garage and blues with electronic elements, the duo has earned a reputation as one of the hardest working bands in the modern rock n’ roll underground, touring internationally for almost 8 years straight, with nearly 1000 shows between them in 23+ countries including most of western Europe, the USA, U.K. and Japan.

The recording sessions for the three songs on the 7″ single took place during a very dark time for Carley and Jonny, who have been married for 7 years. Jonny’s father, John, received a terminal cancer diagnosis in late 2018. “I was in Connecticut with my dad in the hospital and Carley was in Texas sending me song demos. I’d write her back my thoughts and we went on for a while like that. I was up there almost a month when they first hospitalized him. When he stabilized somewhat, I went back to Austin to take a break and be home briefly, and that’s when we recorded this. So we were creating with all of that hurt going on in the background. It was therapeutic for me in a way, to be there with these people, working on art. And I think it came out on the record. It’s definitely darker and more intimate than our previous albums.”

ABOUT GHOST WOLVES:

At Muddy Roots festival in Belgium this summer, the sound system caught fire and blew up during The Ghost Wolves’ set. Mid-show, smoke wafted from the speaker stacks and obscured the stage. “We kept playing.” remembers Jonny Wolf “Until there wasn’t sound anymore. Then Carley crowd surfed. There was almost a riot. It was incredible.”

An uncontrolled fire, or an explosion, may be the perfect way to describe the experience of seeing The Ghost Wolves play live. No two shows are alike, and the audience is as much a participatory body as they are paying guests of the band. Carley Wolf is constantly engaging them, urging them to sing and dance, turning her up amps louder, while Jonny hits the drums harder and harder, until all present enter a feverous trance and the walls of the club seem to be ready to come apart. “If we don’t walk off stage drenched to our underwear in sweat, it was a bad gig,” Jonny says. “That’s how we gauge if we sucked or we did well. By our sweat levels.”

Rock n’ roll is their genre, but the Austin, Texas-based duo explores a wider palette of sounds than just the guitar and drums. Jonny keeps an analog synthesizer and a tape delay box behind his kit, often reaching with a drum stick clenched in hand to smash the keys or spin a knob. Space rays, low rumbles, tape noise and other unidentifiable noises roll over Carley’s thunderous one-string guitar tones and helium-pitch vocal lines. She recently scored a gig as a cartoon character in a kids show, playing the lead singer of a teenager punk band. “It was a dream come true.” She remarks in her natural Betty Boop voice.

The Ghost Wolves’ name comes from a family history on Carley’s side. “I was raised with a pack of wolf hybrid and northern dogs on my parents ranch in central Texas, in the hill country. We’d have a bunch at once, sometimes as many as 11 or 12. My dad is an animal whisperer kind of guy and would rescue them from bad situations, because they don’t make great pets for most people. But with a lot of love and room to run, they became members of our family.” Carley remembers. “When we started the band, we would take some of them on tour with us. They’re our mascots, security, merch sellers, and best friends on the road. And when they die, we really feel it, we miss them so much.”

The duo has released two LP’s and an EP so far on labels from Austin, Berlin, and Nashville. They’ve also toured the world since starting their band 8 years ago, playing nearly 1000 shows in 23 countries. The Ghost Wolves’ recorded music has been featured in film and TV by HBO, ABC, CBS, Disney, Netflix, MTV, Showtime and Alamo Drafthouse. The duo’s ongoing clothing collaboration with Tokyo fashion brand Hysteric Glamour, now entering its 6th season, is currently available at the company’s brand stores throughout Asia and online.

Their most recent recording was made with engineer/producer John Michael Schoepf (bassist for Ray Wylie Hubbard / Night Glitter) in his Austin living room studio. “We were working on 1/2 inch tape and an 8 track Tascam recorder from the 1970’s. We made a point of having no computers or screens in the studio for maximum clarity and focus,” Jonny tells us. “We didn’t want distractions. For us, it was just hanging out with John Mike, who’s one of our best friends in the world, having some beer and rolling tape into the night.”

Detroit, MI noise rock quarter Teener have released their new Auger 7″ today via Third Man Records. To celebrate, they’ll be performing at Third Man’s Detroit HQ tonight with Meat Wave and PRC. The band will set out later this month for dates with No Man and Hirs — see below for the full itinerary of upcoming tour dates.

Teener is a noise rock band from Detroit, Michigan. Formed in 2016, they set out to make loud music without emulating any style or artist. So far, the result is sound that walks a line between New Wave, Noise Rock and Hardcore.

The lead A-side song, titled “The Ladder,” kicks off with a perforated, ascending drum and guitar and vocal shitstorm interspersed with melody-drive guitar solos. Though the kicker and the song’s namesake, is the final 30 seconds, where vocalist Ollie Dodt reenacts what sounds like an all too familiar one-sided conversation- a young person having to push and push and push for the opportunity to have a foot on the professional ladder.

The second song on the first side, “Market Value,” is a heavier chugging number slamming the effect of Detroit’s fracking and toxic matter “processing”, bubbling down into only vocals and feedback by the end. B-side “Flavor” begins with frenzied, booming toms and chainsaw guitars, only to break down about a minute in to a post-punky, drony haze. And suddenly the clap of the toms and guitars return for a hyperkinetic finale.

Third Man Records, as a record label that makes a specialty of 7″ pressings and live recordings from its famous Blue Room in Nashville, TN, is excited to release Broken Social Scene: Live At Third Man Records today. Hear the record digitally HERE. The vinyl version will be available in stores on February 28 — pre-order HERE.

Third Man Records had the pleasure of hosting the inimitable Broken Social Scene, carefully absorbing and recording their magnetic and unforgettable live set on the Blue Room stage. Epic, panoramic, and intimate all at the same time, the legendary Toronto collective Broken Social Scene began as an ebbing and flowing collective of artists in the late 90s, collaborating to create a distinct strand of indie rock that is both perplexingly maximal and straight-up catchy.

The band kicked off the set with emotive fan favorite “Cause = Time”, then transitioning into “Stay Happy,” the lead track from 2017’s Hug of Thunder, in all it’s hypnotic, horn-driven grandeur. Then, on the flip side, the album’s 2-song B-side wraps with the slow-build anthem “It’s All Gonna Break,” a song once described as “Bob Seger on acid.” Really, how else would you want a show to close?

Their live set was captured, mixed and mastered in real time via the world’s only live venue and direct-to-acetate lathe cutting studio. With the release of this live album, Third Man is very excited to invite all to be a part of this special experience, Broken Social Scene’s first commercially available live album, in the only venue in the world where performance, art and tactile transcription methodologies converge.

Third Man Records is excited to announce three reissues of albums by prolific French vocalist France Gall, marking the first North American vinyl pressings of all three albums. Baby Pop, 1968 and Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son will be available in stores on February 21. Third Man will host a series of release day dance parties in select cities, where DJs will spin yé-yé (the style of music for which Gall is known) and French psych. Limited-edition colored pressings of the reissues will be available at the events. See below for the list of parties, and pre-order Baby Pop, 1968 and Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son.

France Gall was a prolific French vocalist and performer, remembered as one of the central figures of the 1960s yé-yé pop movement. Aligning catchy, spirited rhythms with lighthearted lyrics and drawing from the beat music a la early Beatles and Hollies, the yé-yé artists promoted a sort of new freedom of expression and breaking down of social barriers in post-WWII France.

Third Man Records is beyond honored to bring this music to a larger audience by issuing the first authorized North American vinyl pressings of these titles, some of the most brilliant highlights from Gall’s catalog, including Baby Pop, 1968, and Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son.

Third Man Records is excited to announce Vault Package #44, the 20th anniversary accompaniment to De Stijl, the legendary sophomore album from The White Stripes. The package includes a hardcover case, an archival booklet filled with previously unseen photos, flyers and more, a white LP and a red LP full of previously unreleased recordings and covers, and a DVD containing two performances from the peak of the De Stijl era. Sign up is now open through April 30 at midnight CST.

In the year 2000 the White Stripes released their sophomore LP De Stijl. Named after the minimalist Dutch art movement of the early 20th century, the album was a marked deviation from the raw, urban punk blues exhibited on their debut LP from the year prior. Eschewing the cold confines of a studio, De Stijl was tracked in Jack White’s living room, giving the band the freedom to take the time to massage their songs into their picturesque final forms. The year would prove to be a further continuation of the band’s upward trajectory, complete with their first-ever headlining tour, a clutch run of dates opening for Sleater-Kinney, a first-time overseas jaunt hitting Japan, Australia and New Zealand…all culminating in the tiniest peek into the press hype overload that would land come their way in 2001.

Before any of that though was the songs. De Stijl is oftentimes outwardly slow, somber and downtempo. Nowhere is that more evident than on the original acoustic boombox demos recorded by Jack White. Seemingly all done in an afternoon (and some of which may have been accidentally recorded over) the skeletal framework of such deep cuts as “Truth Doesn’t Make a Noise” and “I’m Bound to Pack It Up” butt up against a vocal-less seedling of “Expecting”, an exercise in keyboard dexterity via “Piano Octaves” and the unabashedly ebullient unheard and unreleased gem “Vanilla Fields.” Only recently discovered in the basement of Stripes’ archivist, Ben Blackwell, these recordings, many with alternate and unused lyrics, were completely forgotten by White, yet form a pivotal foundation and structure on which the De Stijl album would build from.

During the White Stripes’ “Three Island Tour” in October and November of 2000, the band found themselves at Corduroy Recording Studio in Melbourne, Australia. The plan was to record two songs direct-to-acetate and press them immediately after as a limited edition tour-only 7-inch single. The a-side was set to be the Billy Childish-via-the-Headcoatees song “You’re Right, I’m Wrong,” complete with Jack White jumping from bass to organ to guitar all in real-time. No room for tripping over a guitar cord or flubbing a lyric…or the band would have to start from scratch. No punch-in’s, no overdubs…just pure 1950’s archaic recording procedure. The b-side was an early attempt at the Burt Bacharach/Hal David song “I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself” which would be re-recorded by the band the following year at BBC Maida Vale Studios and ultimately end up as a top-line single off their Elephant album, released to widespread critical acclaim in 2003.

As the way things sometimes go, the recording didn’t feel quite right at that moment. The levels peaked a little bit, there was something still left to be desired, some long-forgotten disagreements about approach and style and volume causing a metaphorical fissure to erupt across the control room window of the recording studio. The recordings were shelved and remained under lock-and-key in Australia until Third Man Records arranged for their safe delivery to the climate-controlled Nashville tape vault in 2012. While it was tough to sit on them, only now does it feel right and appropriate to share these, some of choicest gems the Vault has ever shared with the fans. We’re unaware of any other unheard studio recordings of Jack and Meg from 2000, so the excitement here is palpable.

As New Year’s Eve 2000 crested over to 2001, Jack and Meg performed a celebratory set at the Magic Stick in their hometown of Detroit. Rather than just approach the set the same off-the-cuff way they’d perfected over the previous six months of incessant touring, the band put in the effort to make the evening special. Fresh off their Australian tour dates, the band exhibited a rediscovered appreciation for the early works of AC/DC and decided to place it front and center by starting the show with intense takes on both “Let There Be Rock” and “Dog Eat Dog.” Joined by good friend Chris McInnis (They Come in Threes, PA) on bass for these two songs, it would be one of only a handful of times the Stripes would employ the four-string instrument in the live setting, creating a rock solid power trio here which is totally in service to the songs. The rest of the set is strong, with all the quintessential 2000-era highlights…”Hello Operator” with “Little Bird” and “Lord, Send Me an Angel” along with a stellar “Let’s Build a Home/Goin’ Back to Memphis” medley. All punctuated with a set-closing rendition of the Velvet Underground’s “After Hours.” Originally written by Velvets frontman Lou Reed for drummer Moe Tucker to sing, the Stripes version has Meg stepping out from behind the drum kit for the first time ever in concert, delivering her lines with all the charm and verve that fans would come to love from her later outings singing both “In the Cold, Cold Night” and “Passive Manipulation.” As with the AC/DC tracks, this would be the only time the White Stripes would ever cover “After Hours.” In a career chock-full of outstanding live performances, this gig stands out as one of the most-special and unique shows the band ever played. Available in mediocre quality on bootlegs for years (thanks to a slick fan who fished a copy out of a dumpster), this version is speed-corrected and remastered in high-quality directly from the original board tape.

Furthermore, it wouldn’t be a full Vault package without wholly exploiting the visual medium by including a DVD of TWO killer shows from the peak of De Stijl touring. We 100% guarantee they are shows you have NEVER seen before, taken directly from the original tapes deep within the TMR archives, never previously shared, exciting and insightful as all get-out. But you’re gonna have to wait just a bit to find out which shows those exactly are. Did you see the band in 2000? Maybe you’re in the crowd shot. Didn’t see them in 2000? Well now you can. You like Easter Eggs? Well maybe we’ll include some. Have a show you particularly want to see? Tell us and if we have it, maybe we’ll dig it up and use it to make your day. You’re welcome.

Of further unabated excitement is the archival booklet serving as a road map through the most recondite peaks and valleys of the White Stripes travels and travails in the year 2000. Filled with all sorts of previously unseen photographs, flyers, posters, hand-written lyrics, death letters, ransom notes, Zodiac Killer ciphers, Mongolian horse racing slips, Braille crossword puzzles and other assorted fish-wrapping, giving you, Johnny Q. Fanboy, hours upon hours of fun reading, digging and learning why this is a band, a release and a year worth paying attention to.

Third Man Records is excited to announce a two-day showcase at this year’s SXSW in Austin, TX. Taking place on Thursday, March 19 and Friday, March 20 at Volcom Garden (1209 E. 6th St.) from 11am-7pm, the Nugs-sponsored blowout will feature performances from Brendan Benson, Black Lips, Redd Kross and many more. See below for the full lineup. The entirely free event will also feature DJ sets, a pop-up store and much more.

Third Man Records, as a record label that makes a specialty of 7″ pressings and live recordings from its famous Blue Room in Nashville, TN, is excited to release Broken Social Scene: Live At Third Man Records on vinyl today. The album is now available for purchase in indie record stores or directly from Third Man HERE. Hear the record digitally HERE.

Third Man Records had the pleasure of hosting the inimitable Broken Social Scene, carefully absorbing and recording their magnetic and unforgettable live set on the Blue Room stage. Epic, panoramic, and intimate all at the same time, the legendary Toronto collective Broken Social Scene began as an ebbing and flowing collective of artists in the late 90s, collaborating to create a distinct strand of indie rock that is both perplexingly maximal and straight-up catchy.

The band kicked off the set with emotive fan favorite “Cause = Time”, then transitioning into “Stay Happy,” the lead track from 2017’s Hug of Thunder, in all it’s hypnotic, horn-driven grandeur. Then, on the flip side, the album’s 2-song B-side wraps with the slow-build anthem “It’s All Gonna Break,” a song once described as “Bob Seger on acid.” Really, how else would you want a show to close?

Their live set was captured, mixed and mastered in real time via the world’s only live venue and direct-to-acetate lathe cutting studio. With the release of this live album, Third Man is very excited to invite all to be a part of this special experience, Broken Social Scene’s first commercially available live album, in the only venue in the world where performance, art and tactile transcription methodologies converge.

THIRD MAN RECORDSANNOUNCES VINYL-ONLY REISSUESOF REDD KROSS’ PHASESHIFTER AND SHOW WORLDAVAILABLE MARCH 27

FIRST-EVER NORTH AMERICANVINYL PRESSINGS OF EITHER ALBUM

REDD KROSS TO HEADLINEDAY 1 OF THIRD MAN’S DAY PARTYDURING SXSW 2020

Third Man Records is excited to announce reissues of Redd Kross’ two beloved 1990s albums, Phaseshifter(1993) and Show World (1997). The 180-gram vinyl-only reissues, which come on the heels of their amazing 2019 album Beyond The Door and after 40 years as a band, will mark the first-ever North American vinyl pressings of either album. Look out for the reissues via Third Man and in indie record stores on March 27. Pre-order PhaseshifterHERE and Show WorldHERE.

The band will also headline day 1 of Third Man’s two-day party during SXSW in Austin, TX — find more information about the party HERE.

Brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald formed Redd Kross (originally Red Cross) in Hawthorne, CA in the late ‘70s. Rumor has it that the band name was inspired by a prop from the 1973 horror film The Exorcist. Their first show was opening for Black Flag and they released their debut record the mythical Posh Boy EP in 1980 when they were just 17 and 13 respectively. The Posh Boy EP features Black Flag’s 2nd singer, Ron Reyes, on drums and founding member of Circle Jerks, Greg Heston, on guitar. 1982 saw a line up change and the release of Born Innocent, a high water mark of American Punk Rock. Containing nods to Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, Linda Blair, Lita Ford and breakfast cereal as well as a killer cover of Charlie Manson’s “Cease To Exist.” Redd Kross loves pop culture.

The brothers have kept Redd Kross going through the decades (and line-up changes), releasing 8 studio albums and a slew of EPs and singles. They have also stayed busy with side projects, production gigs and even occasional acting jobs. What are Redd Kross? Punk Rock? Psychedelia? Heavy Metal? Bubblegum? Power Pop? Whatever they are they are
100% Redd Kross, the catchiest of catchy, chock full of hooks, melodies and harmonies, impossible to not smile and sing along…..maybe even dance. Their live show just keeps getting better. Redd Kross are one of those rare bands who would be equally at home in a dark punk club and on stage at the Enormodome.

Phaseshifter
The McDonald brothers are joined by drummer Brian Reitzell, guitarist Eddie Kurdziel (R.I.P.) and keyboardist Gene Fennelly on 1993’s Phaseshifter. Redd Kross leaves the ‘60s and ‘70s pop culture references at the door (well, most of them) and brings their strong melodies, dreamy harmonies, psychedelic punk/bubblegum metal to the front, tearing through 12 new Redd Kross tunes. Every track is a full-on Redd Kross gem, with standouts like “Crazy World,” “Dumb Angel,” “Pay For Love” and “After School Special.”

Show WorldPhaseshifter line-up intact (Gene Fennelly would soon move on, but plays all the keyboards on the recording), Redd Kross came back at us with amps turned up and smiles on their faces on 1997’s Show World. The album starts off with a spot on cover of The Quick’s L.A. power pop classic, “Pretty Please Me,” and sets the tone for yet another killer album by the thinking person’s good time band.

Like all RK albums before and since, this one is all killer, no filler, with special highlights Stoned, Vanity Mirror, One Chord Progression and the absolutely sublime Follow The Leader.

Third Man Records is excited to announce Bonny Doon – Blue Stage Sessions, recorded direct-to-acetate at Third Man Cass Corridor in Detroit. The LP is available on vinyl today at Third Man storefronts, indie record stores and on the Third Man online store. Limited-edition blue vinyl is available exclusively at Third Man Cass Corridor. Purchase the vinyl LP HERE, and download the album HERE.

The Blue Stage Sessions take the technology, ingenuity and magic that gave rise to the Blue Room in Nashville to founder Jack White’s hometown of Motor City. Like the Blue Room shows, these shows can be recorded in a number of methods, including direct to 2” analog tape as well as direct-to-acetate, a simple and undeviating recording process that allows for live tracks to be recorded direct to a master disc, which exclusively takes place at Third Man Records. Not every album can be recorded direct-to-acetate, but this Bonny Doon live album is one of the rare sessions that was.

Hailing from Detroit’s fertile music scene, Bonny Doon released their first songs into the world in 2015, followed by their well-received debut in 2017 and their more sparse, excellent second album Longwave in 2018. Bonny Doon’s music is founded upon an easy, ebbing groove overladen with dreamy texture, simultaneously serving assurance and inviting introspection. So, it’s no wonder they’ve been tapped by Waxahatchee to record and tour as the backing band supporting her new album this Spring.

For their live set, they hand-picked six of their most universally lovable tracks, spanning their two full-lengths, unhurried and deliberate. They were joined for select tracks by local music scene buddies including Tyvek’s Shells and Fred Thomas. The album opens with the tight album single “I Am Here (I Am Alive)”, showing just how precisely the group can replicate their studio sound while sprinkling in cheerful improvisation. The third and final song on the A side, “I See You,” finds Bonny Doon at their most lackadaisical, endearing and super-relatable, with lyrical depictions of life’s little and big, most profound and wonderfully ordinary. Especially in this time when comfort and consensus seem like rare commodities, Bonny Doon’s Blue Stage Sessions is a real gift.

Third Man Records & Books is excited to announce Issue #2 of Maggot Brain, a full-color quarterly magazine containing over 100 pages packed with art, music, literature, interviews, and archival stories. The March/April/May issue is available now, and yearly four-issue subscriptions can be purchased HERE.

Maggot Brain’s second cover feature is a three-parter on Moondog, featuring editor Mike McGonigal’s phone interview with him from 1998, some amazing never-before-seen images, and a crucial series of archival interviews. The sophomore issue also features pieces on Robert Frank, Don Letts, Denis Johnson, Shana Cleveland, Russell Winfield, Jeremy Barnes, and more.

We love you and promise to never have a ‘real’ website. Long live print!

We miss cigar-smelling newsstands crammed with amazing publications from everywhere all at once. We miss Creem. We miss Ragtime Ephemeralist. We miss Spy. We miss NY Rocker. We miss weirdo newsprint thrust at us right by subway entrances. We miss Weirdo. We miss Locus Solus. We miss Off Our Backs. We miss Low Rider. We miss Kicks. We miss The Voice. We miss Motorbooty. We miss Avalanche. We miss Grand Royal. We miss Slash. We miss the Gentlewomen of California. We miss Raw. We miss being able to find stacks of old Oz, It, or Black Panther newspapers in the back of that used bookstore in the strip mall. We miss the red and black. We miss the crowding into See Hear. We miss Index Magazine.

We miss anything that Joe Brainard did a cover for, that printed words by Lucy Lippard, that ran yet another bare-chested image of Iggy Pop, that told stories for no reason other than they must be told. And yeah, we are aware how cheesy that last bit sounds, but we are pretty much cool with being cheesy — just look what the fuck kind of politics irony, disaffection, and that laziest vice of privilege have got us into.

And yes, you get it, we love print but we do not merely live in the past surrounded by the moldy old, really. We mean, fantagraphics is still publishing new issues of Love & Rockets, plus there is so much new stuff. From every single piece of paper at the Printed Matter Book Fair to the eight-colored silkscreen books of Le Dernier Cri, from your scrawled punk grad thesis ‘zines to the perfectly printed works of Eberhardt Press, there is still so much, and so much we do not know about being made now. And we still believe in the democratizing possibilities of the internet, despite its current state. We’re not luddites, but. Just please don’t ask us where our website is.

Today, Third Man Records is proud to release The Pathetx – 1981, a collection of classic Detroit punk rock that, until now, had gone without an official release. Hear album highlight “Kmart Krowd” HERE. Clocking in at nine tracks and a length of 18:16 minutes, the album is available now in standard black and limited edition transparent orange vinyl 12” 45rpm versions, as well as digitally. The transparent orange version will be available at TMR storefronts and at the band’s reunion performancetonight at Detroit’s UFO Factory. Purchase the standard black vinyl HERE. Find more information about the show HERE and on the band’s official website.

The formation of the Pathetx took place in Detroit in the fall of 1980 with singer Mark Leavitt and lead guitarist Greg Kutcher. Having been involved in the Detroit music scene since the early 70s, Mark and Greg set out to establish the first purely punk band in the Detroit area. Ultimately The Pathetx were regarded as a transitional band between punk and hardcore.

After some shuffling the band member lineup finally came together in it’s final form in March of 1981. Mark and Greg found drummer Ted Meek, (a.k.a. “Iggy Moon”), in a local listing in the Detroit News, guitarist Tom McHenry hanging at the “punk wall” at a local community college, and 16 year old bass player Michael Goldwater (a.k.a. Filthy McNasty), who tried out for the band on the spot, at a local music store.

In addition to their extremely fast-paced original compositions, the covers played by The Pathetx were based on the absurd, including “Climb Every Mountain” from the Sound of Music and a cover of “It’s Fun to be Clean” by the Human Beinz.

While Nunzio’s was the band’s de facto home base, the Pathetx played throughout Detroit at Bookies Club 870, the Freezer Theater and the Red Carpet, as well as in Canada at the Coronation Tavern in Windsor and The Cedar Lounge in London, where Mark taught the energized fans how to slam dance and stage dive. The shows were fueled with blood and destruction. Bloodied faces, fists, broken guitars, cymbals and limbs all became part of the show.

The group went on to record at Reel Sound Studio in the fall of 1981. Although the multi-track tape was lost in the early eighties, the master tape remained with the band’s manager Steve Shaw for over three decades.

Mark, Greg, Tom, Mick and Steve have since reconnected. Sadly, Ted Meek passed away in the early 90’s, but his legacy continues on with his son Keith Smith, who has followed in his footsteps as a drummer.

Third Man Records has announced Third Man Public Access, a series of daily live-streamed performances to take place from their famed Blue Room in their Nashville headquarters. Tune in today and every day at 12pm CT. Performances begin today with a set from new age pedal steel player Luke Schneider. Be sure to check Third Man’s Instagram, Twitter and Facebook pages for daily performance information, with a full schedule to be rolled out soon.

Third Man Records has always believed that great things come out of restrictions. Artists being restricted from their audiences though? We’re not sure what greatness can come from that. Third Man has a big empty blue room, cameras, internet access, and TONS of talented friends and family who are out of work, so they’re putting this all to use starting today at 12pm CT.

Head to the Third Man Records YouTube channel today and every day at 12pm CT for the foreseeable future to watch and hear Third Man’s favorite artists sharing whatever is inspiring them during this impossibly dystopian moment in time. Let us commiserate with you, lift your spirits, and feed your soul with the magic that only “live” music / poetry / puppet shows / some sort of human connection can provide.

Please be assured that they will have fewer than 10 people in the Blue Room (and at TMR HQ in general), and everyone is staying more than 6 ft apart. Third Man will be including Venmo and Paypal handles for you to tip your entertainers — please give what you can.

Third Man Records and Nevermind Media are excited to announce Season Two of their podcast Striped: The Story Of The White Stripes, hosted by Sean Cannon. Hear the trailer HERE, and listen to the first episode of Season Two now on Apple Podcasts or wherever you consume podcasts.

The release of Season Two coincides with Third Man’s upcoming 20th anniversary accompaniment to The White Stripes’ beloved sophomore album De Stijl, which was created during the period explored this season. The package includes a trove of archival photos, show flyers, previously unreleased recordings and covers, and a DVD containing two performances from the peak of the De Stijl era, providing valuable context to the events discussed in the podcast. The package will be available exclusively through the Third Man Vault through April 30 — find more details HERE.

“I celebrated my 18th birthday in Minneapolis in the middle of the White Stripes’ tour behind De Stijl,” says Third Man co-founder and White Stripes archivist Ben Blackwell. “If I can convey a mere fraction of the fun and wonderment I experienced on that tour and that year in Season 2 of Striped, then the podcast listeners are in for a sincere treat.”

“Season One was so much fun to create, and digging even deeper into The White Stripes’ story has been a blast!” Striped host Sean Cannon adds. “It doesn’t hurt that we’re blazing trails by telling a legendary band’s story for the first time in this way — as a podcast instead of the usual book or film.”

About Striped: The Story Of The White Stripes
In 2000, The White Stripes had achieved their wildest dreams: Putting out records and touring the country. But Jack and Meg White were about to find out that maybe their wildest dreams weren’t wild enough. From wowing the greatest DJ of all time to being chased by the coolest record labels — Striped Season 2 follows the band as they stand on the brink of international stardom. You’ll hear that story from the people who witnessed it firsthand.

About The Host
Sean Cannon is a Peabody Award-winning journalist, acclaimed public radio host, and cat rap pioneer. You read that right: cat rap pioneer. His work has been covered by The New York Times, The Guardian, Pitchfork, Washington Post, Vulture, Rolling Stone, and many others. People Magazine even called him “[a] host.” Now, that’s a ringing endorsement!

FIRST TITLES INCLUDEWE’RE GOING TO BE FRIENDS BY JACK WHITE,THE GALLOWS POLE BY BENJAMIN MYERS,LUCY NEGRO REDUX BY CAROLINE RANDALL WILLIAMS,TOTAL CHAOS: THE STORY OF THE STOOGES BY JEFF GOLD AND IGGY POP,WHEN THE WORLD WOUNDS BY KIINI IBURA SALAAM,ASCEND ASCEND BY JANAKA STUCKY

Third Man Books, the literary imprint of Third Man Records, is now publishing e-books. The press hopes this will help readers find a good book during this time to #stayhome. Watch a trailer showcasing the e-book offerings HERE. From the best selling children’s book We’re Going to be Friends, authored by Jack White, and based on the White Stripes classic, to the folk horror, Walter Scott Prize winning novel The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers, to the book of poems become national ballet, Lucy Negro Redux by Caroline Randall Williams, to the oral history, biography Total Chaos: The Story of The Stooges from punk rock icon Iggy Pop, to When The World Wounds by Kiini Ibura Salaam and Ascend Ascend by Janaka Stucky, Third Man Books offers an eclectic electronic bookshelf of the best in contemporary writing. TMB e-books are available from Amazon.com, Apple Books, www.barnesandnoble.com, or anywhere e-books are sold. For more info, please visit thirdmanbooks.com.

Third Man Records has re-launched Third Man Public Access, which will now consist of long-form broadcasts of exclusive content, intimate at-home performances, readings, music videos and more from Third Man artists and friends in lieu of live-streamed performances. Third Man Public Access Episode 3 – From Home premieres on YouTube today, April 21st, at 9 AM CT.

“We’re attempting to capture the lunacy and creativity of this incredibly unique time and present it through an early MTV meets late night UHF psychedelic experience. Join us, while we laugh through the tears in the rain… Fuck Trump,” Third Man co-founder Ben Swank said.

In this new episode, Olivia Jean and J Mascis (accompanied by his son Rory) perform songs from home, and elsewhere artists like Kelley Stoltz, Redd Kross, Dale Crover, Luke Schneider and many more showcase both live and studio versions of their songs. Additionally, Third Man Books author Ben Myers reads from his novel “The Gallows Pole,” and Shadow Show walk us through the recording of a demo. The full list of artists included in this episode are below in the order in which they appear, along with the content they’ll be showcasing.

More episodes are currently in development — be sure to check Third Man’s Instagram, Twitter and Facebook pages for more information as it becomes available.

Bio: Kelley Stoltz is a San Francisco based songwriter/musician/producer originally from Detroit. Some of the artists he has worked with include Thee Oh Sees, Sarah Bethe Nelson, Spiral Stairs, and Echo and The Bunnymen. He has released at least 12 LPs including Double Exposure on TMR. You should own them all.

J Mascis is best known as the singer, guitarist for the band Dinosaur Jr. He has also released several albums as a solo artist and played drums and guitar on other projects. His most recent solo album, Elastic Days, was released in 2018.

Olivia Jean, Detroit born n’ bred, current resident of Nashville, TN, first staked her flag with The Black Belles in 2010 and as a session musician for many acts. Her latest album, Night Owl, a collection of surf guitar, 60s Girl Group harmonies, and punk commingle, placed Olivia behind the control desk in the role of producer.

His Name Is Alive is an experimental rock band/project from Detroit. HNIA debuted on 4AD Records in 1990 and had a long run at the label. Throughout the band’s long history, leader Warren Defever has been the only constant member, with a variety of musicians contributing over the years.

Redd Kross was formed by brothers Steve and Jeff McDonald and released their debut record in 1980. They have since gone on to release 8 LPs and tons of singles. Their most recent, Beyond The Door, 2019. Third Man Records is honored to be reissuing 2 of their 90s LPs, Phaseshifter and Show World this spring.

Rich Ruth is an ambient messenger in Nashville, TN combining spiritual jazz, new age, and experimental ideas on a constant quest for the cosmos.

Ben Myers

Reading an excerpt from “The Gallows Pole”

Winner of the 2018 Walter Scott Prize, the world’s largest prize for historical fiction, and Third Man Books debut fiction novel, The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers. Ben Myers is an award-winning author and journalist, residing in the UK.

Dale Crover has the distinction of having played drums with not one but three of the important bands in alternative rock and roll. He’s spent over three decades with the massively influential purveyors of heaviness the Melvins, briefly handled drumming duties with Nirvana and now a member of the mighty Redd Kross.

”Fell Into a Spell” – DEMO was written and produced by Shadow Show. Recorded at East Studios by Kate Derringer, mixed and mastered by Kate Derringer, and video edit by Ava East. Thanks to Bobby East, Pierre le Chien, Third Man Records.

Snooper

Song: “Music for Spies”

IG: @snooper_7

Venmo: @blair-tramel

Snooper is a multimedia creative project started by animator Blair Tramel and musician Connor Cummins in Nashville. As the band writes and records the music, ideas for how to represent the music visually are simultaneously generated — making each song a story for others to interpret and experience.

Mike Watt is a founding member of the legendary and hugely influential Minutemen along with his childhood friend D.Boon (R.I.P.). On bass Watt has kept their legacy alive in countless bands including fIREHOSE and a little group called The Stooges. Here is Mike Watt and The Missingmen doing a rather ripping version of the Roky Erickson classic.

Luke Schneider

Song: “Anteludium”

Schneider is an in-demand session musician having performed and recorded with Margo Price, Orville Peck, Caitlin Rose, William Tyler and many more. He is now debuting his work with a new age pedal steel album Altar of Harmony out May 15th.

Sessa’s songs are sung in Portuguese, with visceral, sensual lyrics in the vain of Caetano Veloso, and the melodic flourishes of Jobim. On his new album, the music gets a deliberate minimalist treatment. He’s also a long-time fixture of both the American and Brazilian music scenes, as a collaborator with Yonatan Gat, and as co-founder of São Paulo psych-funk combo Garotas Suecas.

Renee Willoughby

Title: “Calling”

Venmo: @renalien (Renee Willoughby)

Renee Willoughby is a multimedia artist living in Hamtramck, MI. Her work centers around collage, ghosts + telematics.

Bio: Anna Waronker from That Dog. and Steven McDonald from Redd Kross sit down and turn in an intimate version of “Shallow” from the movies. Just like Gaga and Bradley, Anna and Steven are partners in both song and life. Look for TMR reissues from both of their bands this year.

THIRD MAN RECORDS’VINYL-ONLY REISSUESOF REDD KROSS’ PHASESHIFTER AND SHOW WORLDOUT NOW

FIRST-EVER NORTH AMERICANVINYL PRESSINGS OF EITHER ALBUM

Third Man Records has released its reissues of Redd Kross‘ two beloved 1990s albums, Phaseshifter(1993) and Show World (1997). The 180-gram vinyl-only reissues, which come on the heels of their amazing 2019 album Beyond The Door and after 40 years as a band, mark the first-ever North American vinyl pressings of either album. Exclusive colored vinyl editions are also available — Phaseshifter is available on red vinyl, and Show World on green. Purchase PhaseshifterHERE and Show WorldHERE. The band has also scheduled a slate of fall European tour dates, and will have the colored vinyl editions for sale on the road. See below for the full tour itinerary.

Brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald formed Redd Kross (originally Red Cross) in Hawthorne, CA in the late ‘70s. Rumor has it that the band name was inspired by a prop from the 1973 horror film The Exorcist. Their first show was opening for Black Flag and they released their debut record the mythical Posh Boy EP in 1980 when they were just 17 and 13 respectively. The Posh Boy EP features Black Flag’s 2nd singer, Ron Reyes, on drums and founding member of Circle Jerks, Greg Heston, on guitar. 1982 saw a line up change and the release of Born Innocent, a high water mark of American Punk Rock. Containing nods to Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, Linda Blair, Lita Ford and breakfast cereal as well as a killer cover of Charlie Manson’s “Cease To Exist.” Redd Kross loves pop culture.

The brothers have kept Redd Kross going through the decades (and line-up changes), releasing 8 studio albums and a slew of EPs and singles. They have also stayed busy with side projects, production gigs and even occasional acting jobs. What are Redd Kross? Punk Rock? Psychedelia? Heavy Metal? Bubblegum? Power Pop? Whatever they are they are 100% Redd Kross, the catchiest of catchy, chock full of hooks, melodies and harmonies, impossible to not smile and sing along…..maybe even dance. Their live show just keeps getting better. Redd Kross are one of those rare bands who would be equally at home in a dark punk club and on stage at the Enormodome.

Phaseshifter

The McDonald brothers are joined by drummer Brian Reitzell, guitarist Eddie Kurdziel (R.I.P.) and keyboardist Gere Fennelly on 1993’s Phaseshifter. Redd Kross leaves the ‘60s and ‘70s pop culture references at the door (well, most of them) and brings their strong melodies, dreamy harmonies, psychedelic punk/bubblegum metal to the front, tearing through 12 new Redd Kross tunes. Every track is a full-on Redd Kross gem, with standouts like “Crazy World,” “Dumb Angel,” “Pay For Love” and “After School Special.”

Show WorldPhaseshifter line-up intact (Gere Fennelly would soon move on, but plays all the keyboards on the recording), Redd Kross came back at us with amps turned up and smiles on their faces on 1997’s Show World. The album starts off with a spot on cover of The Quick’s L.A. power pop classic, “Pretty Please Me,” and sets the tone for yet another killer album by the thinking person’s good time band.

Like all RK albums before and since, this one is all killer, no filler, with special highlights “Stoned,” “Vanity Mirror,” “One Chord Progression” and the absolutely sublime “Follow The Leader.”

Third Man Records has shared, Third Man Public Access Episode 4, which now consists of long-form broadcasts of exclusive content, intimate at-home performances, readings, music videos and more from Third Man artists and friends in lieu of live-streamed performances. Third Man Public Access Episode 4 premieres on YouTube today, May 18th, at 10 AM CT.

This new episode features songs from Thurston Moore, Alison Mosshart, Spiral Stairs, The Nude Party, Anna Burch, members of The Go and more, as well as a reading by Third Man Books author Janaka Stucky. All artists included in this episode are listed below in the order in which they appear, along with the content they’ll be showcasing.

“We’re attempting to capture the lunacy and creativity of this incredibly unique time and present it through an early MTV meets late night UHF psychedelic experience. Join us, while we laugh through the tears in the rain… Fuck Trump,” Third Man co-founder Ben Swank said.

More episodes are currently in development — be sure to check Third Man’s Instagram, Twitter and Facebook pages for more information as it becomes available.

Alison Mosshart
Song: ROADKILL
IG: @AMOSSHART
art inquires and sales: info@alisonmosshart.com
Alison Mosshart is best known as lead singer for bands The Kills and Dead Weather. The multi-media art book CAR MA is Mosshart’s first collection in print of her art, photography, and writing. SOUND WHEEL is the book’s accompanying spoken word record. Her mother was a high school art teacher and her father a used car dealer—both influenced CAR MA‘s images, poems, and stories. Both CAR MA and SOUND WHEEL are forthcoming from Third Man Books & Records August, 2020.

The Nude Party
Song: “Astral Man”
Venmo: @steam-Williams
The Nude Party is a six-piece rock and roll band currently residing in the Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York. Originating as an extended group of childhood friends and step-siblings who decided to start a band and then began learning to play instruments, the band went on to release their debut self-titled LP in 2018 on New West Records.

Spiral Stairs
Song: Fingerprintz
IG: @ spiralstairsofficialhttps://spiralstairspsoi.bandcamp.com
Pavement co-founder Scott Kannberg has been at it for more than 25 years and is best known to the musical world as Spiral Stairs. Kannberg’s solo career proper began with the first Spiral Stairs album The Real Feel back in 2009, and after taking a lengthy break following Pavement’s triumphant global reunion tour in 2010 he returned in 2017 with his acclaimed sophomore solo effort Doris & The Daggers and then the most recent feel-good third solo album We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized.

Falcon/Falkland
Song: I Live In My Sweatpants Now
IG: @kelleystoltz & @garrrth
Venmo: @Falcon-Falklandhttps://kelleystoltz.bigcartel.com
At long last, the 20 year collaboration between Kelley Stoltz and Garth Steel under the guise of Falcon/Falkland has been released. Features Garth Steel Klippert, Kelley Stoltz, Shayde Sartin and Rusty Miller.

Craig Brown
Song: Freaks
Venmo: @Craig-Brown-Saucehttps://craigbrownband.bandcamp.com
Craig Brown is a fixture in the Detroit music scene, Craig Brown co-fronted the punk outfit Terrible Twos and played guitar with King Tuff, while also fostering his love of old country by recording twang-leaning tunes at home for his own amusement. Some of those recordings landed Brown at Third Man Records, which released their debut album, The Lucky Ones Forget, in 2017.

Redd Kross
Song: Mess Around
IG: @reddkrosshttps://reddkross.com
Redd Kross was formed by brothers Steve and Jeff McDonald and released their debut record in 1980. They have since gone on to release 8 LPs and tons of singles. Their most recent, Beyond The Door, 2019. Third Man Records is honored to be reissuing 2 of their 90s LPs, Phaseshifter and Show World this spring.

Liz Cooper
Song: “Crazy Feeling”
Venmo: @liz_cooper
Liz Cooper & The Stampede is a rock trio led by Liz Cooper. The band’s debut album WindowFlowers was released in 2018 via Sleepyhead Records/Thirty Tigers.

Janaka Stucky
Excerpt from TMB book of poems “Ascend Ascend”
For info and shop: https://janakastucky.com/
Janaka Stucky is a mystic poet, performer, and founding editor of the award-winning press, Black Ocean. Third Man Books published Stucky’s debut collection The Truth is We Are Perfect and his most recent book length poem Ascend Ascend.

Anna Burch
Song: Every Feeling
IG: @annaisaburchhttps://annaburch.bandcamp.com
Detroit singer/songwriter Anna Burch pens breezy tunes with sharp, emotionally direct lyrics. Initially making folk-rock as part of the rootsy band Frontier Ruckus, then noisy indie pop as co-leader of the quartet Failed Flowers, she made her solo debut with the full-length Quit the Curse in 2018 and released the follow up, If You’re Dreaming, in April.

John Krautner
Song: Buster, You’re a Real Cool Cat
IG: @john_krautner
Venmo: @John-Krautnerhttps://johnkrautner.bandcamp.com
John Krautner is a rock musician based in Detroit, MI. He is most well known as a member of The Go and Conspiracy of Owls. In 2015, he released his solo debut, Fun With Gum Vol. 1 on Burger Records. He performs occasionally throughout the metro Detroit area.

KOLTAY
Song: Quarantones
IG: @koltay
PayPal: claszlo@mac.comhttps://koltay.bandcamp.com/releases
Chris Koltay is a Detroit based musician and sound engineer and for the past 23 years he’s been running High Bias Recordings, one of Detroit’s more well known recording studios. He’s worked with everyone from Deerhunter to Shigeto and plenty in between including No Age, METZ, The War on Drugs, Protomartyr, Kurt Vile and more. See the full length song video here:

Bobby Harlow
Song: No Stone Left Unturned
IG: @bobbyharlow
Donate: https://www.lighthousemi.org/how-to-help/give/https://listentothego.bandcamp.com/album/the-go
Bobby Harlow is a rock musician based in Detroit, MI. He is most well known as a member of The Go, Conspiracy of Owls and Magic Jake and The Power Crystals. He has worked as a producer for Burger Records and Sub Pop with a ton of different artists, most notably King Tuff. Bobby is still busy writing and recording music as well as raising 2 amazing kids.

Third Man Records is excited to announce their reissue of Albert Ayler‘s groundbreaking 1969 album New Grass, to be released on 180-gram vinyl on June 26. This will mark the first pressing of the album in nearly 40 years. Limited edition Coke bottle clear vinyl with opaque green wisps will be available at Third Man storefronts and select indie shops throughout the US (full list of stores TBA). Pre-order the reissue HERE.

New Grass has been misunderstood from the day of its release. The album finds Ayler experimenting with soul music and digging back into his R&B roots (he started his career playing saxophone with Chicago bluesman Little Walter), fusing it with the avant-garde free jazz (the one element of the record which garnered consistent praise) and adding the vocals of Rose Marie McCoy, The Soul Singers and Ayler himself. As if predicting the divisiveness of the record to follow, Ayler speaks directly to the listener and explains that New Grass is nothing like his albums before — that it is of “a different dimension of his life” — in the album opener “Message from Albert.”

New Grass deserves reconsideration, if not for the heavy grooves and surprising arrangements, then for its bravery in challenging norms of the time; by the ‘60s, jazz was well-accepted as a uniquely American art form, while soul as a genre was very much still seen as primitive. Ayler melds them together and creates something novel, adventurous, and completely his own.

At the time of its release, despite its divisive reception, New Grass helped break down the unnecessary walls dividing genres and revealed music’s potential freedoms. The album has gone on to influence generations of Jazz, R&B, Funk, Hip Hop, Post Punk, No Wave and unshrinking artists like Pharaoh Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Funkadelic, Jungle Brothers, Red Krayola, Sonic Youth and Mark E. Smith.

Third Man Records can’t recommend this record highly enough. They are confident that it won’t take but one listen for you to understand New Grass is an undeniable healing force.